Working in the group is extremely important. Without the group, one can’t advance. Studying theory from the authentic sources is not going to help a person in any way since he or she doesn’t change with it.

One has to put himself in a “laboratory”: work in the group, be influenced by it, time after time lower his head before it, and exalt the group in his eyes so that the friends would have an impact on him. And other times, it should be the other way around: On has to exalt himself by bestowing to the group and seeing the friends as little. This is how the work is done, mutually and in turns, depending on which of the two forces a person is employing at the moment.

My future soul is the “resistance” in the integral spiritual chain, placed between the “plus” and the “minus.” Sometimes, I work in the group by using my positive force and sometimes the negative one. Thus, there are times when I receive additional positive power from the group, and other times I get the negative one. This is how my “resistor” (R) evolves and becomes ever closer to the group, by getting engaged in it until I become its internal part.

Having entered the group, I become like a drop of semen in the womb and start growing in it. If, with all my initial egoism, I am able to cancel myself in the group as its integral part, I am regarded as an “embryo.” Immediately thereafter, my egoistic desire starts growing progressively. Thus I start going through developmental phases having renounced myself before the group.

1. The initial phase is regarded as “the nine months of conception,” which is the first stage of development. Having completed it, I get born.
2. Then, the second phase begins: My egoism grows bigger, and I cancel myself before the group ever more. But this time, I do it more proactively—I work in bestowal to others. This period of “infancy,” the small state, is called “two years of nurturing.”
3. Next, I move on to the third phase of egoistic development and reach “the age of thirteen.”
4. Beyond this point, I can gradually start employing all of my egoism in order to bestow, until I become a complete human being (Adam) at the age of 20 and on.

I undergo this entire process by using my egoism which evolves alongside my actions shown as the time line (t) in the diagram above.

Thus, practical application of the wisdom of Kabbalah entails the inclusion in the group and then into the entire world, when it takes our example and starts developing in the same way.
[43707]
From the 2nd lesson at the Rome Convention on 5/21/11

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Development occurs by virtue of the “electric” force that circulates in the system. When I connect into it with the two forces I have, the egoistic and altruistic ones, its force starts circulating through me as well. In that case, the system is working with me, and I feel the “current” that permeates its entirety; I discover its program and purpose and get engaged in it ever more.

Thus we ascend the spiritual degrees, rising back toward the unified Force. Plus and minus, positive and negative, unify, and we find our eternal life and the final purpose of our existence. This is the program.

This allows us to see the cause of the crisis and its consequences. We understand why we didn’t receive the wisdom of Kabbalah and didn’t discover the group until our egoism had grown to the limits. Only now do we feel, day to day, how everything is changing around. So many things are happening in the world, all of which are devised to reveal the crisis and demonstrate our desperate plight as well as the hopelessness and lack of understanding prevailing in the world. Day by day, at a rapid pace, we’ll be making steps on this path.

Hence, very soon, we will need to show to the world that we understand the plan of creation. Obviously, we do not know all of it since we attain it by climbing the rungs of development. And yet, we do know how to carry it out and how to begin this process. As to the rest, we study it as we go.

Among us, there aren’t individuals who have reached the finish line, which wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Essentially, we learn from Kabbalists who told us about this entire process, the whole human history. Besides, they gave us this information millennia ago, but to this day, their words still keep coming true.

Therefore, we need only to hear what laws to obey in order to quickly become part of the integral system. As soon as I reveal myself as being such part, all the laws start working through me. I begin to understand and experience what is going on in our world. I see right through it, the forces that run through me; I discover what’s causing them as well as the essence of their work.

It is written: “From Your actions we will know You.” The wisdom of Kabblah is a purely practical method that I apply solely on myself. I don’t study any insects under a microscope, nor do I study the external world. On the contrary, I reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah and all creation in general on myself. No science is more practical and experiential than Kabbalah.

Kabbalists explain what laws are to be followed in order for us to become an active part of a greater whole. After all, humanity is merely a small part of the enormous system of the world of Infinity. They talk about simple laws that we need to observe in the group. We must structure it as a mini-model of an integral, immense reality so that within this model we would look for an opportunity and strive to perform according to the ground laws of creation pertaining to our egoism and the positive creative Force.

Then the group will become a “construction area” for me, a sort of “laboratory” where I examine the friends and myself, where we, all together and among ourselves, work, build, create, and shape the future world, the upper world, and humanity of tomorrow. Our acts are in sync with what Kabbalists advise, and we act solely experimentally, by testing and verifying the results of our work.
[43710]
From the 2nd lesson at the Rome Convention on 5/21/11

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

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I began to teach a long time ago. Together with the group we studied the wisdom of Kabbalah for many years. However, even though we read the articles of Kabbalists, we didn’t actualize them fully until the global crisis hit several years ago.

Starting from 2005 or so, we began to focus on the correct structuring of the group. That is where we felt the pressure, and we realized that that is precisely what we needed in order to actualize the method and enter the spiritual world.

The fact is that the world had not experienced a crisis until then. We didn’t feel what or who our actions should be aimed at. But along with the crisis, our group felt an acute, even dramatic need to immediately implement the method in practice so that we could be an example to the world.

With each day we must work to strengthen our inner unity and external dissemination. Drop by drop, we must bring the news to the people that there is a method of correction. After all, the crisis engulfing the world is an invitation from Nature to rise to the next degree.

We shouldn’t be like stubborn children who don’t want to listen to their mother. In all that is happening we should see an unprecedented opportunity: The doors open for us to leave this limited, little world, completely permeated with suffering and ending in death, and enter an external existence, a world illuminated by the upper Light. This is what we must explain, illustrating that it could be done in a group, together.

The laws of the group can even be seen in this world. Indeed, the world is revealing itself as an integral system in which all parts are interconnected. Looking at it, we can see for ourselves what is demanded of us.
[43704]
From the 2nd lesson at the Rome Convention on 5/21/11

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Why is the created being made egoistic? Why does man always think about himself? Why didn’t nature make us feel and love each other as our own children who are even more dear to us than we ourselves? Why didn’t we receive such properties? Why do we, like the infamous cuckoo birds, drop our eggs into somebody else’s nest?

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that it is done so intentionally, that there is nothing accidental in our unwillingness to hold another person dear. On the contrary, we view the other person as appalling, alien, and foreign. It is written: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” but what kind of neighbor is he? He is not a neighbor; he is the most distant and hateful person to me! It would be great if there were just a few of them left in this world to service my needs, and the rest can go to hell, drop dead. It would make our life even easier, wouldn’t it? That’s how we are all made.

So, Kabbalah explains that this mutual hatred is given to us intentionally so that above it, we would aim at unity, bonded by ties of love. “Love” means that we feel the other, sense his needs before our own, and serve to fulfill them the best we can.

The force of rejection remains between us in the form of hate, as some sort of resistor, a resistance element placed between the points of a microchip. But we, despite this resistance between us, are paving the way above it and pass on it with our desire, our “electricity,” the yearning to be together. And that’s when we find the energy in this resistance: the energy of love and personal participation.

We will emit this energy; we will get familiar with and conscious of it by attaining the entire force of nature, its parts, and its timeless harmony. In such a state, we will be living not as individuals, each in their own little element, but between these elements, growing on and rising above this resistance. Mutual hate and love, together, will build a net of relations between us that will be a degree higher than those today.

Right now, we live in a state of resentment among ourselves, as separate, disconnected, and broken apart elements. On the other hand, as we rise, we create unity, solidarity, oneness between us, and we start to experience this network as a new, higher dimension, where we begin to live now. This is what we call eternal life. This is, in fact, the upper life: a timeless, perfect existence that lies above the present one, limited by death and, essentially, killing us day by day.

This is why we need egoistic resistance on one hand and its correction by love on the other. This is where we need to specifically unite the two opposing properties within ourselves. And yet, love prevails over hate and allows us to ascend spiritually so we may break free from this world upward, into perfection and eternity.
[43582]
From the Virtual Lesson, Fundamentals of Kabbalah Series 5/15/2011

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Question: How are the 613 desires and 613 Mitzvot (commandments) connected? How can I correct these desires if I don’t know what they are and am totally stuck in my ego?

Answer: I have a certain point, similar to a drop of semen a human development starts with. I must attach to this point the entire mass of my soul, which will result in its developing based on the information instilled in this point.

Similarly, a drop of semen contains the entire information about a new human being: That he or she will grow and weigh, let’s say, 200 lbs, be 7 feet tall, be brilliant, exalted, and so on. We don’t know any of this, but all human characteristics, his path in the material and spiritual world, all of this is contained in the drop of that semen. We simply need to infuse it with a certain force. This force is provided by the mother.

We study that in the spiritual world there is also a mother: Bina. From there we receive the force to develop spiritually. Inside this spiritual mother, there is a place regarded as the “womb” or AHP, where our “droplet” ascends to. This is what we call MAN. The drop gets accepted by Bina and begins to grow.

This spiritual mother is the group. We had previously mentioned that a person has to enter the group and cleave to it, cling to the “wall of the womb.” Thereby, he starts receiving from it the force of development for its point.

The group itself doesn’t add anything to us; it exists to allow us to receive the upper Light through it, something regarded as blood (Hebrew “Dam” comes from the word “Domem” or “still”). In other words, we are still being developed at the still level, with Aviut Shoresh (the coarseness of desire of the root level).

In our point, there are 613 desires. They all evolve, but we don’t know how it occurs.

Besides, we don’t know what desires are developing now and which of them will be unfolding later. This process can be demonstrated as a diagram that looks like an ultrasound scan: All desires, from 0 to 613, develop in various degrees: some more, others less.

Each of us has 613 desires but in their various combinations. Let’s say desire “20” is developed in me greater than in someone else, while desire “40” less so. They are the same 613 desires which differ in their might and exist in different combinations and proportions between themselves. And when the group becomes a channel through which the upper Light influences all these desires, the Light is regarded as blood and nurtures them, even though I have no idea how.

I don’t know or understand it, just like an embryo in the mother’s womb doesn’t comprehend the process of its development and doesn’t think or ask about it. It is fostered by the nature’s force. This is why this is the development at the still level: without understanding, feeling, and attainment.

What then is the development of 613 desires? When I cancel myself before the group in order to cleave to it, be one with it, so that it would impact me, it means that I am performing the acts of annulment of 613 desires. I am clueless of what it is. All of it together is my ego that I cancel relative to the group. Then I am influenced by the upper Light and advance.

In other words, my action of nullifying myself before the group in order to receive new desires, thoughts, and a scale of values is regarded as carrying out of the 613 commandments. Each action is called a “day.” Thus it is written that every day, a person must perform 613 commandments. And it is so until a person has completed all his or her corrections. This concerns both men and women.
[43545]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: How can I practically help my friends in the group who feel hatred towards me to rise above this enmity?

Answer: They love you more than your mother does. It only appears to you that they hate you. It’s written: “Everyone judges according to their own flaws.” You might change your attitude towards them in an instant and discover that there is no greater love than the one that emanates from them to you. I feel this way.
[43538]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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In order to accelerate our development, we are given all sorts of obstacles, pushed away, and confused into thinking that it’s not necessary to exert ourselves and we can simply wait until everything changes by itself. Or we begin to think that we had already put enough effort but haven’t yet found spiritual revelation. Perhaps, the Creator left His creatures, or this isn’t supposed to be for us right now, and we should wait for another opportunity, possibly in the next life. A person finds various excuses just to remove the obligation to exert himself.

However, it’s said: “The law is given and cannot be transgressed.” The upper Light remains at absolute rest, and we are inside it. Our desires can be developed only through our efforts. The extent of the correction of our desire and, consequently, the Light revealed in it depend on the extent of our effort. It’s a simple law.

We mustn’t forget about this law and should constantly remind ourselves to abide by this principle in the group, leaving no room for doubt and debate, various frictions, or questions: “Why don’t I receive anything? Where is the payment for my work, where is revelation, where is the desirable reward?”

Are you asking, “Where is it”? Here it is, right in front of you—take it! And if you don’t see it, cannot take it, it means that you are not ready yet. So, continue to exert yourself. What can be done if you don’t see what’s right beside you?

Thus, you shouldn’t think as if it’s possible to attain spirituality through some special, magical, secret means. Nothing will help except for work. The lack of sensitivity is what obscures the Creator and the upper Light. The sensitivity can be improved only through ascents and descents, solely through effort and search.

It’s also forbidden to listen to someone talking about disappointment and fatigue. Once somebody sighed heavily during Baal HaSulam’s lesson, and Baal HaSulam became furious at that person, saying that he never wanted to hear anything like that. A person can become tired physically, but he cannot be tired of the spiritual work, of inner efforts! It’s unacceptable to show such mood outwardly.

It’s understandable that people experience different states because they aren’t masters of them. However, a person shouldn’t show them to the surrounding people. On the contrary, no matter how one feels inside, he must always look inspired and willing to put effort into everything. This is the requirement of our mutual guarantee.
[43383]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/2011, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 56

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Question: Our egoistic race is turning into a snowball rolling down the hill. It’s clear that it would break at some point, but no one can stop its motion.

Answer: It’s true. Egoism is our only nature. If we had one more force, opposite to it, we could stop. However, we have no other force.

It has to become crystal clear: We are all arrant egoists. Boundless self-love forces people to drink the cup of poison to the bottom, until the very last drop. Even at the moment before death, they will not be able to stop.

It’s impossible to convince anybody of anything: Everybody will be left with his thoughts and will not hear the warnings. I can deliver a speech before the entire world, bring all the data, write all the facts, invite leading scientists and the most prestigious public figures, and together we will cry out: “Friends! Brothers! We are heading to our death!” Their response will be: “Really? What are you talking about?!” And the public will return to their business of burning the rest.

Everybody is an egoist; each one of us is like a machine and cannot act differently. Someone spins; someone leaps; someone moves back and forth. We are created in this way and are not capable of anything else. People don’t hear calls coming from a higher degree and existing above human nature.

Only by uniting among ourselves will we help them recognize the problem. Only then, having understood the situation and sensed the threat that it carries, will people be ready to listen to us at least a bit. And united with them internally, we will give them the Light that Reforms.
[43401]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/2011, Talk on The World’s Overpopulation Problem

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