Good Environment – 03.27.11
Posted on March 27th, 2011
Everything depends on the intention with which a person approaches the environment from the very beginning. Does he come to the environment (the teacher, the books, and the group) to profit egoistically and receive knowledge, status, satisfy his pride? Or does he want to receive from the environment the property of bestowal, the shape of the Creator who hides inside the society?
If a person approaches the environment, the society correctly, he finds the Creator’s properties there. This is called: “The Creator dwells among His people.” This is the main test of one’s attitude.
Naturally, when we just start our path, we come with ordinary egoistic desires accepted in this world. And even though we are ready to listen to the nice words about love of others and bestowal, we nevertheless count on gaining something for our egoism.
And only under the condition that a person is in the right environment for a considerable period of time and absorbs its external forms of bestowal, lowering himself or herself before the teacher, the books, and the group, he gradually receives from them a force for comprehending and sensing spirituality, the force of unification. This force helps him realize that unification is not achieved through external actions: screaming, jumping, or rejoicing, but requires constant, hidden inner work invisible to the eye.
This work is performed at what is called “night.” And then a person gradually begins to acquire the property of bestowal. The transition takes place when a person begins to see the environment, its inner potential as the force that can correct him. He understands that without this force, he will be lost. This gives raise to the “prayer of the many.”
When a person realizes that one has to pray for the society, he acquires the intention for the sake of bestowal, the “garment” of the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), the right garment for his desire to receive.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/11, Preparation for the WE! Convention
Question: How does Kabbalah view what we experience while we sleep?
Answer: All of the time when a person is not engaged in inner work and does not exert effort to unify with the group in order to discover the Creator is deleted from his or her life.
But the more effectively we use the time to form a correct intention during our waking hours, the more sleeping hours we will be able to add to it as well. Suppose one hour a day, or 10% of all the time that I am awake, I was thinking about intention and making an effort, then the same 10% of the night time is deposited in my “account” as my efforts.
But the dreaming itself is only the consequence of our daily thoughts. During the night time, all of them must be sorted out, “filed,” and “stored” in the archive of our brain. Therefore, the brain works during the night while we sleep as well, but it processes the data it received during the day. As a result, we see various dreams that partially reflect the experiences and events we had incurred while awake, and part of them is totally abstract, being a product of our unrestricted fantasy.
But there is nothing spiritual about our dreams. All animals also see dreams, not just humans.
[39046]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash
Question: What should I do if am eager to be reformed but am not willing to receive this correction from the Creator?
Answer: These are the states we undergo on the path. When we first come to Kabbalah, we don’t understand where we find ourselves, whatsoever. After all, we are led by the inner developmental gene (Reshimo) that moves about like a charged particle in an electromagnetic field and brings us to a place where we can reach some temporary balance.
Thus we move forth in the force field and end up in the group, the source of the Light. We don’t yet understand to where we came; we simply feel that we found something very interesting to us and that we’d like to hear more about it. But a person doesn’t yet realize what is happening with him or her and what this place is where he finds himself.
All of humanity gradually evolves over the course of its entire earthly history, and from generation to generation, our desire gets upgraded. And now we have reached the last, crucial incarnation. After all, we never previously understood what was happening with us. And only today for the first time, we come close to the realization of our soul.
However, a person gets lost and doesn’t comprehend what is going on with him or her. He doesn’t see that he is in the final stage of a very long and unique process that all of humanity undergoes: There are those who walk in the forefront and those whose time hasn’t yet come but will in its turn. Nonetheless, the real work begins when a person understands that he must work on unifying with the friends.
And this is when he discovers numerous obstacles that he can’t justify. He agrees to surrender to this flow and hatred toward all, while going into endless claims and calculations. And this is the most problematic point which many stumble over and give up—until the next time when they will receive this opportunity once more, perhaps in several years or maybe even in the next lifetime.
Nobody can avoid it since the soul must reach correction, and it has nothing to do with a person’s desire. What he can do is realize what constitutes his free will, meaning to perform this correction now or at some distant time.
Hence, the serious work begins as soon as we feel rejection toward the group. And at this point, a person’s success depends on how well he understands that this is just a game that is played from Above and not a reality.
There is nothing real about our life; even this life itself is a mere game. And the most serious game is when a person gets to feel the rejection and hate from that specific friend with whom he is destined to reach oneness and enter spirituality together!
Those friends who gather with him in the group are the parts of his soul, the closest to him. But he is given a chance to feel hatred toward them exactly so that he demands to be united with them by the Creator. And this is the unity where he will, indeed, find the Creator.
[39055]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash
Question: How can I help the friends who leave the group?
Answer: They need help understanding that all of the evil becomes revealed to us on purpose. Yet, we get stuck on the bad feeling and don’t see anything besides it. We need to recognize the source of the evil: Where does it come from and why, and what inside of me is supposed to wake up through it?
However, when the evil is revealed, a person forgets everything. I admit that I feel the same way despite my 30 year experience in Kabbalah. That’s because a new, higher rung is being revealed, which is described by the verse, “There is no righteous man on earth who did good and never sinned.” First you fall into sin, meaning that everything you had achieved is erased inside of you and you are cast into this world as if there isn’t any spiritual world.
It is written about Rabbi Shimon that before he ascended to the end of correction, he fell so low that he felt as a mere Shimon trading at the market, or a person who falls so low, he feels only evil and has to sensation of the Creator or the spiritual world.
Even if you are at the high rungs in the world of Atzilut, when you are in the gap between them you still fall to this world, to the same animate level as all the rest of the people. And this happens so you may start climbing up again. Therefore, a person needs to receive the explanation that all of our feelings are given to us from above for a reason. If evil and hate toward others are revealed inside him, it is that very Mount Sinai (Sinah, hatred) which we has to rise over. Everything becomes revealed for a certain purpose and nothing occurs accidentally.
What is the point of giving us all kinds of feelings for no reason, such as love for someone or hatred? We all undergo only one process, and all the problems and wars that arise in the world are given solely in order for us to find the place of our breaking and to mandate us to have it reformed.
[39043]
From the lesson on Writings of Rabash on 3/25/11
Between the Creator and the created being, the Light and the vessel, desire to bestow and desire to receive pleasure, there is the law of equivalence of properties, form. Only if there is similarity between them can the created being feel the Creator, approach, and touch Him.
But what can be done if the creature is created as opposite to the Creator? Indeed, the matter of creation is the will to receive pleasure. But this desire can cover itself with “garments,” “intention,” it receives from Above and work with this matter “for the sake of bestowal.” Then, it will fit the Light precisely.
The desire to enjoy contains 613 individual desires within, and we must reform all of them so that instead of a simple desire to receive pleasure we would prefer to enjoy only bestowal, as does the Creator, the Light. Such transformation of every desire, adding the garment “to bestow” to it, is regarded as carrying out a Mitzva (commandment). That is, reforming 613 desires, we perform 613 Mitzvot.
It is possible to correct desire solely by the force of the Light that created it. If we yearn for bestowal, we are brought to a Kabbalistic group where we can actualize it. And there, we discover that we are unable to bestow and are totally against unification. That is, we are shown our true substance: the desire to receive pleasure.
In this case, by studying together we can find the Light that Reforms called the “inner Light of the Torah.” The external part of the Torah is the original Kabbalistic texts where this Light is revealed. And thanks to my desire to be reformed, while reading these texts together, we draw the Light to ourselves.
The Light reveals to us even greater evil so that we’ll have an even stronger desire to get rid of it, discover that we can’t do it on our own, and wish to unify with the Light. Thus we double our desire for the Light. First, we ask the Light to reform us to bestowal. And afterwards, we ask to use this bestowal to cling to the Light, to reach the embrace, adhesion, which was the initial purpose of creation.
A person who desires such correction is regarded as “Israel” from the words “straight to the Creator” (Yashar–El). If he studies in the group and yearns to unite with the others, he receives a force from the Light that unifies and reforms them. This force is regarded as the Light of Hassadim (Mercy). It fills the space between them, and instead of hate, they start feeling unity and love, while within this unity they feel the Light itself, that is, experience the Creator.
Thus, the desire to enjoy acquires the “garments” of bestowal and discovers its Creator therein. In other words, we need to ensure that we get the “garments” for our soul! There are many such garments, the 125 rungs of our inner unification. One hundred twenty five times I need to uncover hate, followed by unity, followed by hate, followed by unity, thereby constantly increasing my receptivity.
Thereby we correct ourselves, receiving more “luminous” garments for the soul, up to the last correction. And the Light, which gets dressed in us, also becomes more exalted and brighter in hue.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash
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Question: I have a very strong desire to advance and reach bestowal, but I am totally confused. Where should I turn: within, to the group, or to the Creator?
Answer: A person doesn’t know what the true prayer is. For the time being, he simply feels pressure and doesn’t comprehend what is happening with him and where to turn. Only after a long time, when he reaches contact with the Creator through the friends, does he begin to visualize his appeal, the prayer, correctly.
But for now, it is simply an outcry from the heart. And don’t dread it too much that you are all tangled up and don’t understand; after all, you don’t really know what is going on within you. For now, you register only external changes and corporeal experiences in this outer shell that you are in. But inside, your soul looks like a “matryoshka” (a Russian nesting doll), and each of us contains 125 such internal nesting parts.
At present, you perceive only the very outermost “matryoshka” (shell) which doesn’t yet have anything to do with the 125 ones. But the rest of your inner “matryoshkas” are affecting you as well. And even though right now you feel that you are performing some puny actions (since you don’t feel their results), but by using them, you activate the parts of your internal soul.
Therefore, we need to treat seriously everything we do even when we just seem to sing and have a good time with the friends, and we think that this is something silly. But thereby, you set the whole worlds in motion, like an embryo inside his mother, who determines her entire existence without having any idea of it, or as a newborn baby who doesn’t understand why a dozen of people are suddenly working for him.
So it is with us, while we still don’t understand anything about spirituality. But the moment we at least somewhat start yearning for it, we immediately activate all our inner spiritual systems and all upper worlds!
And so it follows that you are still far from seeing and being able to understand the impact you cause and what you are doing, but it doesn’t matter. The key is to keep doing whatever you are able to do today.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash
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Question: Can I motivate myself to unite with the friends by means of fear of suffering that will come in the future?
Answer: Suffering doesn’t affect the point in the heart! It affects my egoistic desire, my “donkey”! But it does not affect the human in me, my point in the heart. A person can only advance spirituality by moving forward out of his own free will.
Therefore, if I don’t develop the inner aspiration to move forward, meaning that I want to build the storage place for the upper Light with the help of the group, then I evolve as a mere animal that is being “kicked,” through suffering. These strikes make me contemplate: Why are they coming down on me, what did I do to deserve them, and why? Then I will probably start linking my point in the heart with the others.
Question: But how do I scare the human in me so I would get it to advance?
Answer: If you suddenly heard on the radio that our country is about to be covered by a radioactive cloud, your “animal” would start shaking at such tragic news. And you can receive a similar from the group.
However, we do not speak about what will happen to us because we do not advance by way of fear. We wish to move ahead by becoming conscious of the importance of the spiritual goal. The importance of the goal is quite virtual, intangible, and depends on how we depict it within. If we keep envisioning the goal as increasingly more exalted, then we will advance in accordance with that.
In other words, I am like a rabbit that runs after a carrot that is held in front of it on a string. Moreover, a human in me holds both the carrot and the string, while my “animal” is chasing it.
[39117]
From the lesson on Writings of Rabash on 3/18/2011
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Question: How much more hate must be revealed between the friends so that we may reach a real plea for correction?
Answer: The first Reshimo (informational gene) of the breaking that repels me from others must completely unfold in me. It rises to such a degree that I don’t just despise and ignore them, but in fact, I want them to suffer, separate from everybody, and think that I am better off on my own, studying at home and having no connection with others.
People even dare to come to me and ask for private lessons. A person doesn’t understand that the entire actualization of the spiritual method occurs in the group. And after this internal battle and rejection, disillusionment and despair, in time a person suddenly gets to see his internal connection with the friends. It’s as if he stops noticing their corporeal faces and bodies at all. He begins to get into them internally and feel everybody’s inner desire for spirituality, even such as the people themselves don’t feel within. But he is able to practically touch their souls.
And that’s when one can say that he came close to unification with the friends. But at this point, he discovers how unable he is to unite with them and that he needs the help of the upper force. He wishes to find this force inside this bond so that it will connect him, and thus, he achieves the realization. It’s the step by step work of one’s attainment of self, the increasingly deeper states.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash
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The Creator created only one desire, one vessel that remains in simple and complete unity with the Light, as one whole, without any division or differentiation. This was the plan of the Light that created desire, but this desire doesn’t express any personal reaction yet. Hence, there is only one soul, one creation, which is regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity.
Everything else exists only in the internal experiences of this Malchut. It feels that the upper Light which fills it comes with love and bestowal, while it itself is opposite to the Light. Feeling shame, it restricts itself in order not to feel this Light inside, not to feel as receiving. The Light, in response to Malchut’s wish, seems to withdraw, leaving a void around the central point of creation, and Malchut remains empty. But all of this occurs only in its sensations while the state itself doesn’t change.
And afterwards, it hopes to receive the Light in order to bestow and breaks. In other words, it was eager to reform itself and to bestow to the Light just as much as He did in the world of Infinity: to bestow to Him infinitely! But it failed. What a disappointment and pain! After this, Malchut moves into a different mode: It drops the idea of becoming equivalent to the Light.
It had such an enormous, passionate desire to bestow to Him everything, till the very end! But having attempted to do so and failed, Malchut lost everything. It lost the power to bestow, broke, and moved to the force of receiving, to thinking about itself. Now, instead of receiving in order to bestow, it desires to either bestow in order to receive or receive egoistically.
It is totally opposite to what used to be in reality previously. But this entire drama unfolds only within Malchut, in its storming sensations. This is how it forms various relationships with the Light, which are regarded as the worlds of ABYA (Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya) until, in the end, a new intention doesn’t surface in Malchut itself, when it starts thinking about bestowal once again.
It was led to this point by the chain of developmental genes (Reshimot, reminiscences) from the breaking it underwent. It feels so miserable, withdrawn, and empty that the relationship with the Light starts dawning in it anew. So, Malchut begins working to overcome this feeling of separation and awakens shame in itself willingly, wanting to feel how opposite it is to the Light: How entirely giving He is compared to how totally receiving it is.
It feels itself completely broken into tiny pieces, fragmented by their differences, separation, and hate. But this is precisely what allows it to reconstruct itself now, having repaired relationships between these parts, and treat them in the manner the Light does. Thereby, it acquires the properties of the Light, and in the degree thereof, it begins feeling love and bestowal to the Light.
When a person, one of the Malchut’s parts which experiences itself as separated from the others, comes to the group, he begins repairing his relations with all the other parts of Malchut. And if he works correctly, thereby he begins to discern what the properties of reception and bestowal are, as well as rejection, disdain, and attraction.
It turns out that instead of receiving all these meanings supplied directly by the Light, Malchut discerns them on its own, sorting out the relationships between all its broken desires. In other words, it uses the force the breaking and hate in order to understand what love and bestowal is. Thereby, it works on unification, having received “help against it.”
Wishing to unify all its parts, it brings itself back to the intimate relationship with the Light, to an ability to love and bestow to Him. And this is why it restricted itself and engaged in this process that started in the world of Infinity.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/11 Preparation for the WE! Convention
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