Question: What does it mean to penetrate into the integral system of souls that The Zohar talks about?

Answer: It can’t be explained in words. If we could get inside this system, we would experience spiritual phenomena behind The Zohar’s words and feel what every word signifies. We would be able to recognize all of these properties and desires. We would understand why they have such appellations and are defined by these kinds of relationships between them. Everything would become clear.

However, all of this unfolds from the inner vision of the system. The souls are connected with one another in a single organism, in mutual support, guarantee, partnership, and the annulment of each soul before all to a greater or lesser degree, at all possible levels, while every soul still functions above its ego.

In the system where we are connected with each other at the internal level, we unite over our egoism. In this case, you get to see the entire system. At the same time, you are also able to see this world as more external in relation to the internal system since this world remains in egoism and is controlled by it.

In the spiritual system, we are motivated by the aspiration toward oneness while in this world, we are ruled by the inclination toward separatism, withdrawal from each other, desire for personal power, and vain pride. They are two opposing forces.

In this world, I cancel others and exalt myself, whereas in the internal system, I annul myself and exalt the others. That’s the tendency, and this is why both of these systems seem to differ so much.

To the degree that a person gets involved in the internal system, he gets to see the connections between all souls. He feels how everything is completely harmonized and the life force, the mutual bestowal that forms billions of channels between the souls, circulates between them, while this multitude of luminous channels turns into the perfect Light that fills the relationships between all souls.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011, The Book of Zohar

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

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The final result of our work is the establishment of the connection with the environment which becomes wider and stronger all the time, and this strengthens our bond. In the beginning I am just like a drop of semen that attaches itself to the wall of the womb. Then I develop by annulling my egoistic desire at the degrees of embryo-nurturing-adulthood of the first phase, that of an embryo. This is called the development in the three sections of the spiritual womb, whereby I rise from one section to the other.

Then I undergo the spiritual birth, meaning that I establish a new type of connection with the environment and begin to interact with the group consciously. I already check and analyze our relationships, try to make them more effective, as much as I am able to reveal my environment.

Indeed, the environment is always a degree higher than me. Depending on the stage of my development, it is either the mother’s womb for me, or the Mother (Ima), or the Mother and the Father (Abba ve Ima), or Arich Anpin. This is how I discover all the spiritual systems described in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, which become revealed in my increasingly stronger connection with the group.

And later I will reveal that it’s not just my current friends: The souls of the great Kabbalists of all generations also participate in the same group, who have already corrected themselves and join the same system, encircling us.

And if I previously judged everything “according to my own flaws,” now, as I advance, I value this group increasingly more. At each degree I undergo all the stages: embryo-nurturing-adulthood, that is, I first develop my upper part, GE, realizing my Reshimo (spiritual gene), and then AHP, until I complete my correction.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011 Preparation for the WE! Convention

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We live at the time when the entire world is entering the phase of spiritual development. And the group we are building is like the Noah’s Ark, our common mother, where we could all join in and grow ourselves. That is, the group will be the mother’s womb for the entire humanity: It is Shechina which we build between us.

The same place will accept us when we will be “exiled” from the mother’s womb and will be born. And by bringing it ever new “garments” of the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) and corrections, we will raise it higher and higher, till the very end of correction, until it will turn into the bride ready to enter the wedding canopy (Chuppah) with the Creator.

Hence, the group relative to each person and also the entire humanity is that same place which is always a step higher than us. This is the upper spiritual object, in relation to which we constantly reveal our next, higher degrees—in the extent that we are able to rise above our ego.

Egoism remains a force that separates and therefore helps us. After all, by overcoming the ego in particular, we are able to establish a tighter connection with our environment: or like an embryo with the womb, or like a nurtured baby, or like a grown-up who receives the Light for the sake of bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011 Preparation for the WE! Convention

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Question: If the matter of creation is the receiving desire, what does it mean to bestow in order to bestow? Where is the work with desire?

Answer: The truth of the matter is that the receiving desire itself works for the sake of bestowal. It supports a fellow human being, helps him, and performs various actions in relation to him.

In general, to understand bestowal for the sake of bestowal, it’s necessary to understand what reception for the sake of bestowal is. It means that I work with my receiving desires so as to use them to grow a fellow human being and perform the actions of bestowal upon him, similar to how Bina works in its AHP.

I include the receiving desires of the other into my own and fill him with everything he demands. And what he demands is Infinity. Then, with my help his desires reach an infinite magnitude, while the Lights coming to him through me grow to the infinite size of NRNHY. This is how I work, receiving in order to bestow: I make sure to give the other everything necessary, utilizing all of my abilities for this purpose and totally ignoring my own profit.

However, for this I need the upper force absent in my nature. My inborn nature lets me perform only the actions that promise me a personal benefit, whereas the actions of bestowal are totally selfless and do not benefit my receiving desires in any way. This is why I can’t perform them unless I receive the strength from the upper dimension, that of bestowal.

Hence, I incorporate the needs of the other into my desires and then through my desires I fulfill him. In general, we are talking about the desires which relate to our interconnection since the spiritual work is performed at the level of unification of the souls where we fill ourselves with the upper Lights.

So, there is an additional option: not to engage my receiving desires, but only pass all goodness from myself to the other, to participate in his fulfillment, but not with my own desires. This is pure bestowal. As a rule, these actions forestall mutual bestowal. They correct our unification. Thanks to them we annul our egoism in order to rise above it to unity. And unity itself is activated by the direct use of our receiving desires.

In this way, bestowal for the sake of bestowal is an intermediate, small, weak, “poor” state. But we have no choice: We need to undergo it since we thereby clean our desires and rise above our egoistic qualities. Without it, it’s impossible to start working with them. First of all, we have to “clean them up,” meaning to fill them with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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Our mood defines the connection with spirituality, with the Creator, with the Light, the fulfillment we had in the world of Infinity. But when we aspire to a good state, we naturally think about fulfillment and forget that this fulfillment presupposes correction, the intention “in order to bestow.”

In other words, we first of all need to acquire the intention to bestow; fulfillment will follow. Hence, we are given a feeling of emptiness, lack of fulfillment, so that we focus not on it, but on the intention, meaning on fulfilling others and not ourselves.

This is needed to build within us a “neutral” attitude free from egoistic pleasure when we can use the fulfillment for the sake of others and not ourselves. Just imagine what it would be like if we were given the ability to fulfill ourselves with the upper Light egoistically! We would dream about it all the time instead of thinking about how to fulfill others!

Hence, the upper Light is hiding. Thereby it gives us the opportunity to think about the upper fulfillment unselfishly, free from our egoism which does not distinguish the concealed spiritual pleasure. Even if I’m not exactly happy, and the friends, too, don’t seem particularly joyous, this is the only opportunity to lull my egoism and thirst for pleasures to sleep and use this empty space for building my relationship with others.

This is an exceptionally valuable help, and we have to be thankful for it! Otherwise, we would probably remain in the slavery of our egoism and wouldn’t have any chance to tear away from it. And here, I’m given a chance to search by myself and artificially, meaning not according to my desire but virtually from zero, start advertising joy, the importance of the spiritual goal, of the environment, of everything that I lack!

I myself awaken this joy and importance, build them artificially, and bring this into my environment. I act like a child who plays with a toy and thereby introduces it into his life. He pulls a toy car and hums, and it seems like a car is indeed driving and the engine is working in it.

This is how we activate the upper system with our desire. This desire—the only thing we need to reach—is our plea (MAN). We express our desire so as to realize it without any readiness from the side of our ego, without any preliminary sensation, but purely artificially. This is how we start building a new form from a zero.

We shouldn’t be ashamed of it being seemingly artificial. Surely, it’s not an authentic form in a sense that it does not derive from our previous desire. On the contrary, we should be proud of it not being our true, natural (egoistic) desire and of us playing a game of bestowal!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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In the final state we have to return to where we came from at the very beginning, where we were united together, as one man with one heart. The Creator created only one creature, one desire.

When this desire divided into parts, the separation occurred only relative to us: This is how we feel it. But coming back to the state of unity, we feel as if we were in a dream. We perceive this separation and the entire world, the entire reality except for the world of Infinity as a dream.

By descending from the world of Infinity into this world though the five worlds or concealments (“world” or “Olam” comes from the word “concealment” or “Alama”), we gradually lose the sense of reality, similar to a person who gradually drifts into a dream, until falling asleep completely. And now, in the same gradual fashion we have to wake up from the dream.

However, the only, perfect state exists even now, and we live in it. We only need to clarify that our separation is just a dream and to shake it off from us. It only seems to us that by intending to bring joy and inspiration to everybody we care about others. In truth, it is an opportunity to work with myself. But it’s very hard to wake oneself up, and besides, in that case I will be driven by a small egoistic goal of this world and nothing more.

This is why, essentially, bestowal to friends, uplifting their mood, returns me to that same state of unity. I care about my own soul, aspiring to unite it with the rest of the parts, with all other souls. This in particular is each person’s mission, by fulfilling which he realizes his soul.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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Question: A part of me really wants to go to the Convention, but another part of me opposes it so strongly that I don’t want to see anyone. What should I do?

Answer: You have to make your free choice. You should understand that both parts of you, like all of the thoughts and desires that awaken in us at every moment, come to us from the Creator. These are conditions which are set for us; it is not the actual me.

What makes the decision is not my body, which gets sick and does not want to go to the Convention, and not my mood either. We act like a mechanism where all of the internal electrical signals are controlled by the upper force according to the program leading us to a certain state.

Life, death, and all of the states in between are determined from above and there is nothing accidental about any of it. Therefore, in every state I have to detach myself and look at this “mechanism,” meaning my body, its mood, and everything in it, from aside. The purpose of this is to see that this is the Creator’s work and to understand what He wants to give me right now, and to what state does He want to bring my “donkey” (Hamor, donkey means Homer, matter). Then I will understand how to work with it and will not identify myself with this “donkey.”

The more times a day a person is able to detach from himself in this way and look at himself from aside, like at a body in which some kind of forces are being awakened, without identifying himself with it, but rather using it as a means to attain the goal, the faster he will reach success. That is also how we should treat the friends in every regard. Don’t look at their faces or personalities, but at their inner desire in the pure form, which does not depend on anything external. This is the friend of my point in the heart.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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

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Question: How can we ascend above all the quarrels in the group before the convention?

Answer: When preparing for the convention, you have to see how all of these conflicts are given to you as “help against Him,” how Pharaoh rises up and asks, “Who is this Creator for me to listen to His voice?”

The Creator tells you to unite with the friends, while the Pharaoh tells you to disunite! The Creator says, “Give in!” While the Pharaoh says, “No, you have to rule over them with an iron hand!” The Creator says, “Work joyfully,” while the Pharaoh says, “No, you will work dejectedly and enslaved to me.”

These two forces argue within a person when he reaches the “ten Egyptian plagues” as he discerns which of them is right. I have to understand that I determine which of them will take the upper hand and rule—the Creator or Pharaoh! Everything depends on me.

This is the most decisive point, and I am standing in the middle between these two parts of reality: the positive and the seemingly negative, which were prepared for me in this form in order to give me the freedom of choice. I have to decide that I want for the force of bestowal, love, freedom from egoism and ascent above it to assume power.

I am ready to accept the blows falling on Pharaoh and egoistic Egypt, and I am happy about them. Let the blow fall upon me because it is hitting my egoism, helping me to be freed from it, to ascend above it and no longer be inside of it. After these blows, I already come out of Egypt and am no longer enslaved to it!

Yet, a person shouldn’t work on himself, but in relation to the environment, the group. He shouldn’t correct some kind of qualities inside of him, but his attitude to others. The most important thing here is not to get confused and not to change the direction of one’s efforts.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/11, Preparation to the WE! Convention

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