Question: How can we correct the situation when the heart doesn’t agree with the good intentions that I understand in my mind?

Answer: We are not the owners of the heart, the environment controls it. If I want to think about something serious and sublime, I take a book or watch a movie, or talk to myself. But if I want to change the desire in my heart, I need external influence.

It all depends on how I arrange my life. You have to regard ordinary life like a theater, that is, to give it only as much importance as necessary. I have to go to work and lead an ordinary life like everyone else. Yet I don’t treat it as my real life, but rather as a theater play, in which there are actors who play their role as was determined by the Creator and they’re not even aware of it.

The one thing that can really influence me is the group. In all of reality there is only this one tool, which I can influence and which can influence me. I can prepare myself to have a more sensitive perception of their influence and then I will get it.

So, all my work is concentrated only within the group. There’s no other way to change a person’s heart. Sometimes people think that it’s possible to study and to disseminate more and thus to advance. But the study is no substitute for the group. A person’s advancement is only possible through the group.

The group can be very big or very small or even virtual and not physical. But in any case I have to be around people who are like me, towards whom I can practically annul myself, give them presents, respect them, and see them as the greatest in our generation. I have to act before them by seeing myself as a total zero, as dust under their feet. Then through the group, the Light will influence me because I annul myself. This is an actual annulment and not some imagination like in relation to the Creator in front of whom everyone is ready to lower their heads. 

Then I will see to what extent these actions are efficient and how they could have helped me if I had done them many years ago. I don’t understand why I haven’t heard about this until now. After all, it is so simple. In fact, I did hear but didn’t carry it out. It takes a long time until a person finally hears and begins to do something.
[75953]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2012, The Zohar 

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Try to constantly see two states: the real state that you see and the desired state. Most of the time we are in a rather latent state, and the way a person sets himself depends upon him. If you are given positive or negative awakenings from Above, you begin to act. But if you are not pushed from behind, you are half asleep, like in a dream. It’s here that the major work is concentrated, the search for how to spur yourself on. This is in order to see your state in the true Light and to imagine the desired state, so that the gap between them will show you how wrong you are and how much more there is to do. Then you begin to look for the means to change your state.

It all depends on the awakening from below, but you get the energy for that from the outside because there is nothing in us except for a machine that wakes up under the influence of an external force. Just like an engine that operates only if it continuously receives fuel or electricity. The moment the energy supply is cut off, it immediately stops. This operating energy can come from the actual source, from the Creator, and oblige our engine to run, or it can come when a person summons it by himself. This is the human part of the engine, when a person connects himself to the electricity network and operates himself.

You can operate yourself only by the group, by the equivalence of form. The more adaptable you are to the upper energy source, the electricity supplier, in bestowal and in a desire to do good to others and the Creator, the more easily you’re able to connect to the source of electricity, to the Light. And then the Light will influence you and operate your engine.

The energy of life always comes from the outside, from the Light. We constantly receive a tiny spark of vitality that revives us and enables us to exist. In addition to this spark, we receive an awakening from Above, according to time, to different periods, and to individual and global changes that one must go through.

Everything always depends on our awakening below which is the main part. All our advancement is by the awakening from below, all the 125 steps we have to go through, as we perceive a deficiency on our part. We have to operate our machine ourselves, by yearning for bestowal. By operating this way we advance step-by-step and each time our actions become more qualitative.
[76044]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: In the conventions, especially in America, there are people who stand on the side and don’t connect easily. What is more, since they know in advance that they will spend three days leaning on the wall, it sometimes deters them from coming to the convention. What would you suggest that they do? How can we help them?

Answer: I definitely suggest that they come and be included in the crowd as much as they can. As it is written: “Educate a child according to his way.” People who find it difficult to connect in a circle will find one another. They may form their own circle, and within it, there may be someone who will shake them up a little.

Don’t object to the convention and don’t force yourselves. Everyone has a place there. After all, we are all different, and there are people who cannot connect with others. They sit on the side and listen, absorbed in their own thoughts. Or on the contrary, there are those who make too much noise. These people still don’t feel where they are and in what they are included. Their inner pace isn’t synchronized with everyone else yet, and either the euphoria or their introversion is controlling them.

Most of our friends already know and understand the method. They are working on advancement in a more or less methodical manner and are experiencing ups and downs. If a person really understands that he is detached from the general flow aimed at the goal of creation, it is especially important for him to come because it is a sign that in the meantime, he is going through special preparatory states. The influence of the environment will help him through it. I strongly recommend that you register.

On the whole, there are special people with special sparks. This is how they were created, and it isn’t a matter of heroism or weakness. The main thing is to realize what is within you. Just carry out the role that nature has given you, and eventually, if everyone makes his special and unique efforts, we will all become truly equal, with no traces of the previous differences.

Ultimately, everyone does equivalent work. We simply don’t understand yet how perfect the general system is.

But on the way, there are differences among us. Some people have special jobs; it is as if they have their own history, their own development. Accordingly, they should be treated differently. They look different from others, and their ups and downs are different. They act differently externally and go through different internal states—in contrast to any logic of our world.

Similarly, in the scientific and philosophic community, there are exceptional geniuses. Quite a few clever people have demonstrated exceptional attributes. In our case, it is even more prominent. However, for such people in particular it is very important to be with the community because in relation to them, we are like humanity in relation to us.

The sparks in the heart are divided into two parts: GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) and AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh). Those of us who belong to GE are special. Sometimes, they feel a strong aversion toward society, but it is very important for them to come to conventions even though they feel no need to mingle with the friends, regarding them as humanity. It is still essential.
[75970]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why is it so difficult to imagine the next level?

Answer: It’s not a lack of imagination, but a lack of interaction between people. If we were playing in the yard with friends, we would imagine everything clearly since there is mutual interaction between us. One person says something, another adds something, and in this way, a game is created.

Whereas here, we can’t get together yet; we can’t imagine the next degree. We are missing the mutual help. I still don’t feel the support of the friends in this. It isn’t your fault or mine. For this, we need training sessions that will gradually give rise to the next degree.

This level doesn’t exist within us yet. We are not to blame for this. We simply need to put in effort, and the upper Light will begin to form it within us. It already is building it within us, but this takes time.

We constantly yearn for the next level like children; we don’t understand, play, and make mistakes—but we want it! It doesn’t matter what we want because it just might not be what we need. However, these efforts invite the upper Light that gradually forms the next level within us: At first, it does it in our imagination and then in cloudy sensations. Afterward, the upper Light forms together both the sensations and thoughts, certain understanding of what should happen. And then what we learn, feel, and hear from other friends adds together. We suddenly begin to receive their thoughts and desires, and all this connects together.

If it’s difficult for us to imagine the next level, it’s a sign that we haven’t attracted enough of the upper Light so that it can give us as least some kind of impression, some format of the next degree. However, I am sure that we will overcome this.
[75793]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1

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Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam, (Steps of the Ladder), “The Need for Love of Friends”: There are many merits to it: 1) It brings one out of self-love and to love of others… since by that he can come to love the Creator. However, we should know that loving others or working for the benefit of others is not the purpose of creation, as the secular understand it…. Saying that we must work to benefit others is only the correction of creation, not the purpose of creation.

A person begins to study the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to be smarter and to find out what goes on in the upper world. He dreams about seeing, revealing, and feeling the upper force and governance, to attain his past, present, and future, and the system that manages the whole world, including us.

He perceives everything through his ego, the desire to receive pleasure, and so he hears selectively: only what can do him good or harm him personally. Concepts like “love of friends” and the “need of the love of others” just pass by his ear.

It takes a long time until thanks to the study, dissemination, and connection to the group, a person finally begins to understand that love of friends doesn’t mean to be good kids like in the kindergarten, but that it is a spiritual principle of a totally different level.

This principle stems from the shattering of the vessels, that is, from the unified soul that was shattered into pieces and by that laid the foundations for our whole world. And this is why we have to connect all the pieces of that one soul. To the extent that we manage to connect them, we begin to feel the upper world.

A person is willing to hear about love of friends only after many years. Therefore, beginners cannot understand Rabash’s articles about the group. The more advanced students will perceive them as a real, necessary, and desirable tool because they already understand how important and beneficial it is to attain connection by virtue of which we attain the whole world of Infinity.
[75909]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/2012, Writings of Rabash

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In our world, the spark of spirituality, the point in the heart, has not awakened in very many people. They are in the minority as compared to the rest of humanity who are attracted only toward the corporeal delights of this world. However, people who yearn to reveal the Creator have qualitative strength, and if they unite, they can attain a force greater than the force of the rest of humanity.

It is possible to be great in terms of quantity and in terms of quality. Quality is more important than quantity. Thus, if ten people, who scrutinize the goal and want to attain it, unite, a force created by them is greater than the external force of humanity, of all the billions of people around the world.

It is so much more meaningful that they are unaffected by the influence of broad society and its quantitative strength. Thus, by creating a not-so-large group, they can advance. A person falls under the influence of the environment—and his only free choice is to choose a suitable environment for himself.

If he constantly annuls himself before this small group more and more, he can be sure that he will reach the goal this way. To the extent of his annulment and connection with the friends in greater and greater concentration, he will constantly come closer to the goal. After all, the goal is found in the center of this small group.
[75906]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You said that we have to imagine ourselves in a corrected state. How can I be sure that I imagine it correctly?

Answer: It’s impossible to imagine a correct state. The Light will gradually create this picture for us. This can only be done by the Light!

Our attempts resemble those of a child who does something with persistence, and even though he’s unable to accomplish a task, he still continues trying. You’ve seen the persistence of a  child who is playing or trying to do something. As a result, he acquires sensations, thoughts, and experience and thereby becomes an experienced adult. This is the only way it can happen.

We don’t reveal anything new here. We utilize the same Light as we did when we were children when we were trying to become adults. We are utilizing the same principles that are instilled in nature. This is the same exact law and there isn’t anything else.

You make attempts, you play with building blocks, but they fall down. You try to assemble a construction set, but you can’t. You do something, jump, and run around like a little monkey. However, these efforts evoke the upper Light, the concealed force of nature, which is responsible for your development.

This force developed us on the animate level and we became adults. Right now we’re consciously playing the next degree so that the same force will develop us and elevate us to that degree. Whatever it is you play, that’s what you will become. This is the way it works.

Today we’re playing a game of “Becoming Similar to the Creator.” If we continue playing this game, we’ll succeed! People develop through playing. You have to imagine yourself there. Imagine yourself as an adult; this is most important. You may ask: “What does it mean to rise to the next degree? After all, this is what we want to accomplish.” Go ahead and realize your desire! Fantasize about what it means and play this game, but base it on the knowledge you’ve obtained.

You read lots of articles and listen to the lessons: What is the meaning of the upper degree, the quality of bestowal, above egoism, a screen, Reshimot, Partzufim, the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Hochma, and so on? How do transitions become actualized? Try to constantly imagine that you are there and you’ll achieve it! All of nature operates according to this principle. There’s nothing new to add if you compare it to the development of a child.
[75898]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/2012, Workshop 1

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Question: The need for the women’s desire, without which men won’t come to the goal, was not felt at the seminars. Why is that?

Answer: In order for a man to feel a need for something, he has to realize that without that need or desire he won’t reach the goal. It means that they haven’t reached that state yet.

Assume I try doing something and see that it doesn’t work out. What do I miss? Aha, I need another tool. I start working with it and see that I lack some other device. Meaning, only to the extent I see myself not reaching the goal do I look for the ways to reach it.

Then I see the lack of a clear strong support. It must exist for sure! This is what is written in Kabbalistic sources and we see that in a real life as well.

Men have their own somewhat baseless pride. They forget their dependency on women due to their nature. That’s a man’s nature.

But by moving forward, they begin realizing how weak they are. And then feel a strong need for female support.

That is not a weakness, it’s just our nature; when we depend on each other with just the right combination, together we achieve the common goal.

By the way, I’m sure many men have this feeling—I see that in them. They really feel it.
[75941]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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The environment is a tool for self-correction, and self-correction is the means for the correction of the world. This is because a person who changes himself just a little thereby changes the entire world.

Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.” The entire problem is that point, the fulcrum.

You can “move” the earth if you have the right and safe point to lean on. Even if the left part of the lever is just a meter long, if the right side is, let’s say, millions of meters long, even if you use the force of just one gram, you will turn the world.

You have to be a hero in quality, not in quantity. It is all about how much you prefer spirituality over corporeality, meaning internality over externality. This means that you choose the fulcrum. If you see spirituality as more important than corporeality, then no matter how much the earth “weighs,” you have a lever that can turn it. This is the “heavenly mechanics.”
[75820]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/2012 on Holocaust Memorial Day

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By trying to unite in the group, we don’t just evoke the Light, but the Light that Reforms. It doesn’t correct me, but it gives me new details of perception. Its job is to show me that I am totally detached, opposite, broken, immersed in hate, and laying at the bottom. First, I come to this recognition.

Beyond that, the Light obliges me to feel that nothing can save me, and it is impossible to come out. It gives me the feeling that there is no force in our world that can correct me, although I seemingly do want to connect with the friends and love them.

However, I continue to work and do my best, together with the great hate for separation and the great desire to unite. With the help of the Light, I begin to understand that this is very important. Then, it reveals the most important internal point to me: the understanding that only the Creator can help me.

Thus I reach two things. On one hand, I begin to hate evil, and on the other, I come to love the good, meaning absolute bestowal, when I actually want to go out of my way toward others. I have acquired a big deficiency, the need for unity and love. In addition, above the call of the heart, I have reached the understanding that no one can help me except the Creator.

So, eventually, I acquire a deficiency for the Creator. First, I assumed that together with the friends, we would tear down the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), and as a result of this demand, I would penetrate nature more deeply and discover the inner force hidden in it—the only one force that can help me. I feel that the desire aimed at the Creator is born in my heart.

This is the top, the climax of my work on the corporeal degree, with all the means available here. From this point on, I am “locked” onto the Creator: How do I ask, demand, oblige, and beg Him for help?

This desire develops and takes on new forms. For whom is the Creator’s help meant? I begin to see that until now, I wanted to use Him, even pay Him. However, I actually need the changes in order to bring Him pleasure. So, by changing internally, I begin to change our mutual relations, until above all my personal calculations, I want all the changes to bring Him pleasure.

This is the work of the Creator: I work and consciously aim all the fruit of my work toward Him. Then, I ask to feel Him. I ask not as I do now, not for my self-benefit, but on the contrary, I tell Him: “Don’t reveal Yourself, otherwise my desire to receive will begin to enjoy. Just tell me what is for Your good. This is the only thing that I want.”

So, from the level of our world, I move on to another kind of work, done relative to the Creator. At the same time, I continue to work in the group, but now as one whole with it.
[75857]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/2012, “Preface to The Book of Zohar”

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