Question: How can we tune into the convention? What can we do to arrive there already hot, to start feeling everyone from the beginning?

Answer: To do this, you need to read all Rabash’s articles again about the work in the group, cancelling yourself before the others, viewing them as at the great ones who are in complete correction, and accepting each friend as a great Kabbalist.

We must try to see beyond all the words that you hear from a friend that seem silly to you, and to see that the Creator speaks to you through him. If you become connected in this way, you begin to see inside him what is really beyond him.

You just have to break this egoistic picture depicting to you that they understand and know nothing, who they are, etc. You need to see through them as a manifestation of the upper force. This is possible when you look at them as if you have blurred focus, and you really start to see commonality and the Creator.

Question: Do I prepare myself to see anyone in this way, or in general, everyone in the whole room?

Answer: In general, the hall, and anyone. You must look at all those who participate in the convention, who somehow suddenly got there, as at those who were brought there by the Creator.

Comment: But at the convention in Vilnius, you said that a person naturally sorts people: He likes some, does not like others, and most he doesn’t see at all.

Answer: This is just at the beginning, before the first inclusion, and then all these physical differences disappear. Then, he begins to see that all this is one system, a single image.
[84893]
From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

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Question: How can I better understand that the world depends on me, and how can the group feel that everything depends on it?

Answer: The easiest way is to remember that there is no world outside myself. It is only because of the shattering that I imagine that everything around me is not me. As Baal HaSulam says, there is only one soul in the world. In the real state of Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) we are all connected and there are no barriers between us. No one is isolated, we are in perfect mutual connection and everyone feels only the others and not himself. This is the real picture and we have to reach it independently since today we see it in its opposite form.

In the last, fourth phase of the Direct Light the created being feels that the Creator loves him and that He does everything for him in absolute love without any self-calculations. On the other hand, the created being feels the opposite feeling of the self that is accompanied by such great impatience and suffering that he is ready to do anything in order not to feel that.

After the restriction the created being discovers that he can attain the same thing and reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. Then he decides to find a place where he can be independent. He has detached himself from Malchut of Ein Sof, but has not become independent yet and has continued his search—how to break free of the Light and still acquire its power in order to change himself and become like it.

Then comes the descent from phase one to phase two until our current level. Today only the spark is evoked in us, some vague knowledge, and from this moment it is only by our exertion that we can attain the two forces: the desire to receive and desire to bestow so that they will dwell in us. Then we will be able to manage ourselves and bring ourselves to the initial adhesion by ourselves.

Before the Light, the Creator who created this state provided our full adhesion. Now on the way to Malchut of Ein Sof, I climb the levels of adhesion by my own efforts, by my self recognition, by my self feeling. I determine my state and thus attain infinite adhesion which I feel 620 times more strongly than before because I have done this work by myself; I understood by myself; I felt; I have acquired; I have earned it. This will be the final third state.

I follow this path by attaching to myself all the parts that seem like strangers, that are hateful, distant and opposite from me. I attach them to the absolute love among us and by that return from our world to the word of Ein Sof.

Today we don’t hate the external world, but we are indifferent to it. Later on, however, we will discover such sources of hatred that are called a “shell” against the Holiness, against bestowal. We will encounter things that we cannot even look at, that we will find hard to hear. Imagine that someone destroys something that is important and dear to you and now by rising above that feeling you have to love him and thank him. Is that possible?

Compared to those terrible states it is as if we are in a “kindergarten” today. We are not “playing” with the real discernments yet…

So before the correction, everything is revealed in its opposite form. Therefore the world, which today simply seems distant and detached from us is actually the parts of the general vessel, of the one soul.
[84925]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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The upper can help the lower under the condition that the lower is trying to unite with the upper. But it is impossible to unite alone with the upper because adhesion means that you wish to bring the corrupted vessel of bestowal to Him for Him to correct it, because we are corrupted.

But when do I feel this way?—When I wish to unite with someone and am incapable of it. Then I take this broken vessel and say to the upper: “Correct it!” He corrects it, and then I acquire a whole vessel with a certain degree of bestowal. I perform an action in it—actual connection in a corrected vessel—and then I attain a spiritual degree.

In other words, I had a small broken glass. I asked the upper one to fix it and He corrected it; in other words, He has given me strength to glue this glass together to make it whole. Now I can fill this glass by performing an act of bestowal, and I will fill it. This means that I have reached the level of Nefesh de-Nefesh of the World of Assiya.

And once again I turn to my friends, the group, and once again I analyze my lack of desire to continue to advance, I analyze how broken my vessel is. And once again I ask the upper one to correct it. But I must give Him something to correct. Otherwise, what will I bring to Him, what is my request? I must come and cry about the broken vessel, like a small child comes and cries over a broken cup. And then the upper one will correct it, and once again I fill the corrected vessel with the bestowal I desired and I attain the next spiritual degree, Ruach de-Nefesh of the World of Assiya. In this way I ascend the 125 degrees.
[84899]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, The Zohar

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Question: Could we try to hold silent workshops on the theme “Standing at Mount Sinai,” “The Birth,” “The Desert,” etc.?

Answer: No, I think it is not necessary because while one person talks, the others have time to become included, to think, and to perceive his words.

Anyway, when we begin to hold together such inclusions, time is compressed. A person goes through many states, not only for himself, but also for others, and thus it does not make sense just to keep quiet. On the contrary, everything is built on co-ordination, on the contact between them. The most important thing is communication.
[84831]
From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

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Question: What can help me during the reading of The Zohar to see the point in the heart of my friends?
Answer: Ask! The Zohar is like electricity in the outlet on the wall: If you want, you can heat with it, if you want, to cool, plug anything into it. It is energy. The Zohar is the simple Light. You decide how to use it.
[84897]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, The Zohar

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Question: What is love above the ego?

Answer: First by the efforts a person makes in the group, in the study, in using all the options, he should value the attribute of bestowal very highly. A person goes through many states of giving and bestowal that he isn’t aware of at all, as he feels himself as “dead.” He can be in opposing states, wanting only to receive, or feel disappointed about the way or the opposite, meaning to be in high spirits. But a person should rise above all these opposite polar states. There is the state itself and I rise above it. The state was sent from Above by the Creator who thus wants to check how we respond and rise above every state.

A person usually feels indifference and disrespect. But if he says that he doesn’t want to believe what he sees and starts doing something about regaining his inspiration, the sensitivity, the feeling of vitality in bestowal, his special attitude towards his correction, meaning above the indifference and the disrespect, then he will gradually draw upon himself the Light that Reforms.

I begin to value the attribute of bestowal, the advancement towards the Creator, towards His revelation, the states that are above this world. If I already value this and aspire to bestow, I have a vessel. I want to feel that I’m lost within the attribute of bestowal, that I value it more than anything. Why did this suddenly happen? This is how the upper Light bestowed upon me and now I want to have this attribute too.

The question is also why do I want it? I may feel that I’ll feel better with it, that it will free me of all troubles and worries. Is it bad to feel that I don’t belong to this world? Many people want to detach themselves from it.

So I should check the reason why I’m doing this. The upper Light stimulates me and inserts the appreciation of bestowal into me, but what kind of bestowal, perhaps egoistic bestowal? I check myself with the help of the group and the friends, to see whether I can, with the help of my apparent aspiration for the attribute of bestowal, attain it and feel it. Do I want to bestow in order to bestow upon others, or am I doing this in order to receive something: respect or appreciation? I check all this within the group.

Why do I do that? So that I’ll feel good? No! So that others will feel good? Yes! But do I know that it’s so and that inside I don’t actually hope to get something in return? I check it by asking whether I aspire to bring the Creator pleasure through the friends. Here my true distant goal has to be revealed. I suddenly discover that I want to direct all my actions of bestowal towards the Creator.

But here too I still have to clarify things, since to bestow upon the Creator is undoubtedly worthwhile. After all, He will certainly understand, discover and pay me for my loyalty, and if I reach this, my whole life is filled with different priorities. But no! I want to bestow so that the Creator knows nothing about it and only in order to be in the attribute of bestowal.

I examine my actions according to the extent that I can rise above my egoistic desires. If I don’t constantly examine myself as to how to raise bestowal above receiving, I’ll not be able to hold on to bestowal under any circumstances. I must constantly check what I have gained and what I have lost and whether I can ignore my losses. This means, whether I can receive a filling and be above this.

I have constant calculations in my desires to receive as to what extent I can remain in true bestowal. One is based on the other. After all, there is no way to assess whether or not you are doing this for yourself, in the vessels of bestowal, in the aspiration to bestow, but only if under all this there are desires to receive which I restrict to build upon them a Masach and the Returning Light, which means my actions of bestowal.
[84853]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: With respect to the general public, our method should be the means by which they will be provided with basic needs such as food, safety, and health. How does it help them reveal the spiritual world?

Answer: They reveal the spiritual world more passively than we do.

We become connected with the upper one to bring the Light that Reforms and to resemble It. This Light we pass on, carrying the method of correction to people. And they perform only the necessary steps under our direction, not caring about the Light, and this practice of connection is enough to bring it to their environment. The Light will affect and advance them towards the understanding and feeling, and then they will want to receive it themselves to move towards unity and the revelation of the Creator, as it is written: “All shall know Me, young and old.”

Thus, we must carry the method of unity to the people so that they feel good. We cannot explain what “good” actually means; however, the Reforming Light lies in these activities, and due to It, people will move further and further in the interpretation of their benefit until they come to The Good and Who Does Good.

Question: How is it combined with people’s simple needs, for example, for cheaper food?

Answer: We explain how to unite so that food becomes cheaper. Of course, no one wants to unite, but this is the condition if we want to achieve something, and that is why a person pays this price. And then, continuing to act in the same direction, he discovers that unity is a treasure in itself: not as a tool to help you achieve something, but as a state. This is how the Light acts, giving us a new understanding.

So, we explain to people that united together they will have many advantages. Mutual support will instill in them a sense of security; their life will become better, safer, etc. Of course, you have to pay for it by a measure of personal convenience, by a share of your egoism, but it is easy and attractive with overall participation. The strength of the masses does the job. And then, having approached realization, people will see that it really brings them benefits, that the solution to the problems has been found.
There will be no repeating of the scenario of Soviet Russia or Israeli kibbutzim; the script of unity is just for the sake of a better life. After all, today we are engaged in the process, and only through our participation people come together so that it is good and useful for development. Suddenly, they will feel that unity attracts them because therein lies a higher root, a higher state, something that fills them with the spirit of life. So, they will go ahead.

Question: Where do we need to start our explanations to involve them in the process?

Answer: We need to develop an approach that would allow properly explaining to people that unity can greatly improve society, to achieve discounts and mutually beneficial exchange, learning to help each other, instead of paying someone money, etc. Someone will voluntarily take on a children’s club, others will also contribute, and we will be able to live a normal life without money, discounted by the crisis. We will feel the need for and the benefits of reciprocity.

Of course, without the Light that Reforms, not intending to unite seriously, people would “run away” after having used each other. But here, thanks to our leadership, people will feel the need for internal growth. Time after time, they will discover higher desires that require fulfillment, for the time being egoistic. And then, gradually, people will come to the altruistic intention from Lo Lishma to Lishma (not for Her name to Her name).

Thus, everyone goes through the same process; only their starting point lies below our point. We begin with the state of “Yisrael,” with the aspirations “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El), we have the urge to reveal the spiritual world. And they do not have this attraction, and that is why we have to pull them along, to be what is called the “Light for the nations.” We conduct the Light in the actions of unity, through which we train people. These actions benefit the people, and meanwhile, the Light hidden in them develops people.
[84764]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: What is important at the convention: that a friend is in a permanent cancellation of himself before the general flow or in the constant internal scrutiny of his state, in search of new sensations?

Answer: No, he has nothing to scrutinize his state with! He does not have the inner Light! He has nothing. He draws the inner Light by being included in the others, and the Light reveals these states in him. Otherwise, he will think with his mind and come nowhere. He must give way to the Light that will show his next inner, higher states.
[84780]
From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

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Striving forward towards the goal of creation, we discover destruction inside of ourselves. Conversely, those who do not strive forward do not discover destruction inside of themselves. In exactly the same way, one can reveal the malfunctions in an automobile only if one starts the car and tries to move it. Otherwise, everything seems to be in order. I have not yet found any problems inside of me, and I attribute evil to something else.

That is why only the one who strives towards the goal reveals destruction, only the one who strives towards unity of the group discovers how far away he is from that. Movement towards the good and striving for wellbeing brings us a bad feeling, the realization of evil.

What for? So that on the next level I would cry out asking for help, raise the MAN (prayer). And then I will receive changes, the qualities of bestowal. That is where movement occurs and not in anything else. One must check oneself in this.

So, I have been applying efforts, I was uniting with the group, and I wanted to be together with the friends in order to come out into the spiritual world, to arrive at bestowal, to the Creator. And what did I receive as an answer? The realization of evil: how much I do not want to go to the Creator, do not want to be in the group. I discover my true state; the truth comes out into the light.

If I put down my hands now, then I will miss the opportunity that this revelation presents. The Creator said: “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” It means that now I am starting from the evil inclination, and up until now I carried out work in order to reveal it.

First of all, in order to reveal the evil, I must be connected to the group, the study, the Creator, and other means. As a consequence, the evil inclination has been revealed to me. Afterward, I address an appeal (MAN) for the Torah, spice, for the Light that Reforms concealed inside of it.

In reality, all of that is good. Since if we were to judge it from the point of view of bestowal, then the revelation of the evil is the essence of the good. But when will I attain revelation?

And then, the next state comes to me; I receive the answer of the One above to my appeal—MAD. This answer can be so great, that I will attain group connection and a vessel in which I will reveal the Light. Then the Light and the vessel will become bestowal, which I have attained after numerous similar actions.

This way, on the one hand, receiving, the evil inclination is always characteristic of me, but on the other hand, I get the force of bestowal, the Light.
[84186]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If we have to build a new relationship that is higher than pleasure, does that mean that we cease to enjoy?

Answer: It all depends on what I enjoy. We have to demand pleasure; we shouldn’t look for sufferings. On the contrary, we should enjoy but from connection, adhesion, brotherly love, the love of the Creator. No one says we have to weep.

Our vessel is a desire to enjoy that constantly demands and checks itself to see whether it has received a filling or not. I work with a “screen and Returning Light” when I restrict my desire. But I cannot suffer from this restriction since it would not be wholeness; it would not be the right state. If you suffer because of a certain action you have performed, it isn’t a whole action. It isn’t a spiritual action.

It may eventually bring you to spiritual actions by the recognition of evil, thanks to which you will understand that you have to change. But you should know that it isn’t right. A spiritual action should be preformed joyfully. There is no pain in any movement or in any spiritual step, since otherwise it isn’t wholeness. I know that I have performed a spiritual action if I perform an act of bestowal and I enjoy the fact that I bestow. It is like a mother who gives to her child and enjoys it even more than the child himself. There must be pleasure in every action since the Creator wants to bring pleasure to the created beings.

Then we begin to discover that in these actions of bestowal there is 620 times greater pleasure. This is the reason that so many people in history tortured themselves just to feel the Creator and reached nothing. What could they feel if they brought afflictions upon themselves? It is not the right way.

On the contrary, it is your human ego that promises you that you can approach the Creator this way. This is why there are traditional fasts and restrictions in different religions. After all, the religions were created thanks to the ego, after the destruction of the second Temple and the disappearance of spirituality. People were left in the dark and for ages they perceived spirituality from the point of view of the ego, of the desire to enjoy.

The ego understands only the impure corporeal pleasure. This means that the action that is opposite from it is suffering. So whoever tortures and restricts himself more, sitting in the same position all day, meditating and living on a bowl of rice is apparently righteous.

But in the spiritual sense it is just the opposite; the goal is to bring pleasure to the created beings. So if you want to follow this goal in every action that you make, you must reach pleasure—but only from bestowal. This is the hard part. After all, how can I enjoy bestowal if I am opposite to it? So the Light that Reforms comes and reforms me.

It is very simple; we should just constantly hold on to this principle. There is no room for afflictions and suffering; on the contrary, if we aspire for connection from the start, we should feel that by that we reach life and pleasure. This is why mutual guarantee is so important because it lets each one feel how important the goal is, the high spirit, which is like a breath of fresh air.

It turns out that the pleasure is not only permitted, but it is obligatory! Pleasure is a sign of advancement. There is no prohibition to enjoy; the whole idea is the way you enjoy. Now I enjoy that fact that I receive on the account of others and harm others, dominate someone, oppress him and feel above him: I receive a great reward, domination, an understanding. I have to turn this pleasure in the opposite direction: as I would treat the one I love—like my own child or someone that is close to me.

If I treat a stranger this way, it will open up a field of study for me—a place where I can see whether I really change or not, whether I receive pleasure by helping others. Others may still be strangers and distant from me, but I correct myself and thus bestow upon others and enjoy this bestowal.

If I don’t enjoy it is not considered a spiritual action. The intensity of the action is measured not according to how much to give another, but according to how much I enjoy it in my desires. This is exactly how we advance. It is a very important point in which all the clarifications take place.
[84641]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/12, Shamati #2

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