Question: Why does the burning desire that used to be there at the beginning gradually disappear? One continues to experience good or bad feelings, but sometimes one feels indifference and a complete absence of feelings.

Answer: This is also part of the “game” and concealment. Either one hides his desire to enjoy and acts above it, or one is given concealment from Above. Then, this is not concealment on one’s egoism because one has to make it himself. From Above, they hide from him what he should hide from himself!

It turns out that he loses the connection with the upper luminescence, that little illumination that he was given from Above, and he feels himself completely cut off, as if he has nothing. Sometimes, he realizes that he has lost everything, and at times he does not feel even that, and he starts living like a simple animal. Detachment from the upper source means an animal existence.

If there is a feeling that something higher exists, this is an awakening of the human within us. When we begin to search for something higher, a person starts to grow from within, like a plant does. When we start to take proactive steps, to work in the group with the friends, then we can raise ourselves to the animate level of the human degree. When we realize the form of mutual bestowal, this means that we have reached the genuine, human degree.

From a complete detachment caused by the fact that the upper source was concealed from him, a person reaches a point where he himself hides this upper source from the desire to enjoy. Then, he grows up like a human, above this concealment.
[49202]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Shamati #39

Related Material:
Test Yourself
The Human Degree Does Not Wither
An Ambulance For The Wounded Path

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: How does one test whether his effort is sufficient?

Answer: Efforts are usually made above reason, above knowledge, when it seems to a person that everything is extremely difficult and impossible, and that he has had enough. He no longer believes in the teacher with his “folly” or in the Creator who is concealed, making it impossible to tell what He wants from him. And he has many complaints about the group as a whole, as well about every person individually.

However, at the same time we need to say that this image that I see is only according to my own faults, my egoism! It’s because in reality, I exist in the world of Infinity. And the group is the souls that I am completely connected with. And the teacher is the part above us that leads us to the connection with the already corrected souls so that we together with them can correct the souls that are still uncorrected. And the Creator will become revealed between us; for now He is concealed for our own good.

If a person imagines this state correctly, if he understands that this world is imaginary and he needs to dig deeper through this illusory image, to its inner form so as to reveal the strings that connect us, like on the reverse side of an embroidered image, he then will be able to put everything in place and demand to be changed.

He will reveal perfection through being in harmony with all the desires, in other words, with the group and the Creator, the quality of bestowal. He will feel that he has attained perfection this way and there is nothing greater than this, no need or desire for anything greater because this is the most perfect state for him!
[49076]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/2011, Shamati #187

Related Material:
All Imperfection Roots In Me
The Concealment Of Perfection And Even Of Its Absence
Efforts And A Finding

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (The Mutual Guarantee)”: The commandment of “love thy friend as thyself”… cannot be observed by an individual, but only through the consent of an entire nation. And this is why it took until they came out of Egypt, that they became worthy of observing it.

The full measure of man’s great desire as well as the full measure of his aversion to others have to manifest within him. The magnitude of his desire is Pharaoh, the extent of his rejection is Mount Sinai, and the measure of his aspiration straight to the Creator is Moses. Thus the entire Biblical story of the exodus from Egypt is outlined within man’s soul.

And until then he does not need the Kabbalistic method; he does not need corrections. He doesn’t strive for actualization, isn’t ready to be as one man with one heart with everybody, and doesn’t demand help of the Creator.

This scream is yet to emerge in the group, but we must come to it. Then we will discover that we are truly dealing with a method here: the means of correcting desire.

And then they were first asked if each and every one of the nation agreed to take that commandment upon himself. And once they agreed to it, they were given the method.

What is this question that is asked of everyone? Indeed, it is the Creator asking them. And what does their consent signify?

In other words, a desire, a lack, aimed precisely at correction must manifest within man. “Do you wish to correct your nature to that of bestowal or not? Are you sure this is what you want? Are you ready to unite with the friends? You’re incapable of it, but do you desire unity or not?”

Here you need to want to escape the ego (Pharaoh) at any cost, even if it means crossing the Red Sea (in Hebrew, Yam Suf – final sea). “To escape at any cost”—that is what everybody must feel. If that is the case, then we are ready to unite and receive the force of unification called “the light that Reforms.” That is what we call the giving of the method, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
[49114]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Related Material:
The Final Condition
The Medicine For Eternal Life
Let’s Keep Thinking About Unity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Mutual Guarantee - No Comments →

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

Filed under: Group Work - No Comments →

Question: How should my need for mutual guarantee be expressed?

Answer: By you shaking others up, waking them up, and doing it inside of you rather than with words. Words actually emasculate the meaning. Our entire work is done on the inside rather than the outside. What’s important is the extent to which I try to shake up the friends inside of me so that together we will go towards mutual guarantee.

We do not attain it with our own forces, but demand the revelation of the Creator. After all, mutual guarantee is the force of the Creator that connects us with one another. Alone we cannot extend the threads of connection and perform bestowal to one another. Nothing will work unless the Light becomes revealed between us.

Today we are connected only through hatred. But if the Light will set in between us, we will unite in love and bestowal. Mutual bestowal, where the Creator fills the space of our relationships, is mutual guarantee.

We have to aspire to it even though we cannot attain this on our own. Everything will come through from the darkness if we really desire to reveal mutual guarantee for the sake of the Creator. And “for the Creator” means for the sake of the quality of absolute bestowal.
[49336]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/11, “Arvut”

Related Material:
Without Possibilities, But With A Choice
Approaching The World With The Light
Who Am I Working For?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean to “increase one’s effort in the work” when you have doubts about the teacher and the Creator?

Answer: If you’re having such doubts, you cannot lean on the teacher or the Creator, but must seek help from the group! You must receive from them this support, meaning the importance of the goal, the teacher, and the Creator.

When you find yourself having doubts, meaning that you cannot tip the scale either way, you need an effort to tilt the scale to the right direction. But where can you get it? By delving into your doubts? That won’t help you resolve them anyway. You must understand that in this state, you personally have nothing to lean on, but need an additional force.

Presently you cannot receive this additional force from the teacher or the Creator because you doubt them. The only thing that can help you is the environment, which imparts to you a sensation of the importance of spirituality, confidence, and mutual guarantee that the teacher and the Creator are important for achieving the goal. And if you don’t heed their advice and instructions, you don’t advance because you’re working with your egoistic reason which will not let you go forward.

Therefore, Rabash writes that in the group, its members should talk about the greatness of the teacher and the Creator so that everyone would be impressed by it. Only under this condition will you be able to continue the work.
[49080]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/2011, Shamati #187

Related Material:
Do Your Work Like A Pro
Without Concealment, We Couldn’t Reveal Perfection
Efforts And A Finding

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Table of Questions for Topics”: Question 93: What is the root of every corruption? The Shinui Tzura (the difference of form) of the will to receive from the Maatzil (the Emanator).

We always check ourselves against the Creator since we have no other standard. After all, in the beginning, the creature created “from absence” has no frame of reference in this void. The creature born “from absence” can test itself only against “existence from existence,” relative to the Light.

We have no other way to determine what is good and what is bad. And all the qualities we find in ourselves are deceiving; for the time being, they exist by themselves and are defined only by our own imagination.

Real evaluation is possible only by comparing two opposites which have inverse nature. And so, until the creature reveals the Creator, stands opposite to, and measures itself against Him, it will have no way of knowing what and where it is, and in what state.

All measuring is done relative to the image of the Creator, the image of the Giver that we are able to create within ourselves. But we can build this image within ourselves only on the condition that we perform a restriction and remain in bestowal and concealment relative to the others.

This is why we are given the group as a reference system, where we can do it all. And then we will at least be able to know what state we are passing through moment to moment. The way I wish to appraise the group (whether I think that I am greater or lesser than they are, what kind of relationship I desire to have with them, and whether I am seeking the Creator between or outside of us) determines my own state of existence.

It is my attitude to the friends that I should assess my current state by!
[48837]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
A Point That Contains Infinity
The Creator In The Eyes Of The Created Being
Clarifying The Secret Act of Creation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

Filed under: Group Work - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “Truma,” Item 759: Once the Nukva was adorned—meaning built by [Partzuf] AVI [Aba ve Ima]—and ZA and Nukva returned to being PBP [Panim be Panim], that shape of man, ZA, came by craving for the Nukva. There, in the Nukva, the second man of Beria was engraved and depicted, as his form. It is written about him, “And begot a son in his own likeness, after his image.”

The Book of Zohar talks only about what is happening in the network that connects the souls. The entire sum total of these connections between us is called “the upper world,” whose pictures are described by The Zohar, including forces, Lights, various forms and images. There is nothing more for us to imagine because this is what we are living in.

Each of us individually is a desire to enjoy, and outside of every one of us, in the connections between us there is the upper world, filled with Light. Therefore, I have to “wrap up” my will to enjoy, cover it as if in a shadow, perform a restriction on it and create a screen and reflected Light, and then to exist outside of it, in my relationships with others.

This is exactly what The Zohar talks about: which form or image I take on in relation to others. If I do this, then I reveal everything we read about in The Zohar. Otherwise I am inside of myself, in my will to enjoy, and I feel only this world.

We can perceive either inside of us or above us, outside of us. “Outside of us” means in the attitude to the neighbor, where “a neighbor” is the people with whom I want to build a connecting network. This is called “the group.” If I relate to the whole world in this way, then the group is the whole world.

While correcting my qualities, if I desire to reveal the force that founded everything, then I reveal it according to the law of equivalence of form. As soon as my connecting network with others acquires a spiritual form, a spiritual essence, the true mutual bestowal, the level of mutual guarantee even on the first stage, then inside of it, I immediately feel the Creator.
[49184]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
The Radiance Of The Integral Soul
Man Is A Formula Of Connection
Everything Is Revealed Between Us

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spirituality, Unity, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: What is mutual guarantee?

Answer: Mutual guarantee means that I act according to how I understand and feel my relationship towards others, my interconnection and interdependence with them within a single system where we are like organs in a body. There are many stages of our closeness to each other inside this system until we reach the stage where we start acting as cells in a body, when from what comes to me I take everything necessary in order to completely realize myself for the benefit of society.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that there 125 steps of our connection with each other before we reach a perfect system. Thus, we correct ourselves, our ego, and obtain the property of bestowal and love towards fellow men to its fullest. This is called a complete correction of a person, when he or she becomes global and integral within all of nature.

Thus, having built himself with all of nature tied within and thereby affecting all the lower levels (the still, vegetative, and animate), a person achieves the level of all-inclusive nature. We can call it the Upper force or Nature with a capital letter. It is then that a person feels himself eternal and perfect like the whole of nature, which has no beginning and no end, no time, movement, or space. His perception of reality changes because a person perceives himself differently: He discovers vision and perception on a new level.

Mutual guarantee can be explained with the example of the interaction between all parts of nature: between the still and vegetative, the vegetative and animate levels, how they feed and support each other. There are plenty of examples of mutual help in nature: how bees and birds help plants reproduce, how all of nature is interconnected. This is a special, very interesting science. It is simply amazing how all the parts of nature depend upon, are interconnected with, and need each other.

The easiest way to explain mutual guarantee is through the example of the work of our body parts. When I don’t feel well and go to see a doctor, he examines whether I am in balance or not, what part of my body is out of balance and isn’t working properly. This is called an “illness.” If a part cannot perform its work relative to all other parts, for example, the kidneys cannot remove toxins, the liver cannot clean the blood, or the lungs cannot provide enough oxygen, this is an “illness.” According to this, we check whether people are healthy or not.

This is how we have to check human society, whether it’s healthy or not, according to how much each receives and gives, to what extent he is in connection with other parts because he must do so for the benefit of others. And it’s everyone’s mission.

That is, each gives up his ego directed at oneself and engages all his talents for the benefit of others. What does he get out of this? He obtains the perception of a higher reality, eternal and perfect, raising him to the degree which is much higher than his current animate level.
[48797]
From the talk about a new book 7/11/2011

Related Material:
Mutual Guarantee Is The Key To The New World
A Proposition We Shouldn’t Refuse
Unclogging Spiritual Arteries

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, Love, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A - No Comments →