Good Environment – 03.14.11
Posted on March 14th, 2011
Question: To what extent do our thoughts, intentions, and ability to focus during the lesson depend on everyone who studies with us around the world? Is there such a global interconnection?
Answer: What does interdependence entail? If I view the entire reality as parts of my soul, then I am totally independent. These parts of mine awaken solely to the extent of my attitude toward them, my desire to awaken them.
I don’t focus on their external behavior, but rather awaken them from within, and at the same very level of inner connection, with that they awaken me in response. Everything is determined by my outlook on the world: Either I view it as a material reality with lots of corporeal bodies, or as the earthly desires of men, or as the body of my soul, its Partzuf (structure).
In the latter case, I see not the external images which seemingly exist in the corporeal world, but rather the parts of my soul, which I must transform. “I” is the focal point of my thought, intention. “I” is the intention which I must add to these desires and properties to aim them correctly.
What does it mean that I depend on and get awakened by the others? As I awaken them, I awaken myself in response. This awakening seemingly passes through the external system, while the system is mine nonetheless.
[37445]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”
Related Material:
The World’s Problem Is My Problem
Under Anesthesia
Kabbalah Moments – My Japan
We reside in a system of forces that expand from Above downward. And hence, a ladder of rungs was formed in this system, where each rung is made of opposite forces in their various combinations both in terms of height and quality. And the entire difference in these forces lies in the depth of the level of desire (Aviut) at which they work since desire’s depth changes its quality. After all, desire can be of any degree: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (0-1-2-3-4).
But when we begin to climb upward, we receive only one force at first: the receiving one. Then, we start working with the group, and within it we see the second force: the force of bestowal. It is against this force that we discover the force of reception, which is not the same as the earthly desire we arrive here initially with.
When we begin studying Kabbalah and try to unite with the group, we thereby evoke the Light which illuminates a new desire within us that is against unification, the group, love, and bestowal. Then, with the help of this Light, we get to know our evil.
Only due to engaging in the group do these two forces emerge in a person and stand in opposition to one another: the force of love and the force of evil, both of which are connected to the spiritual goal that a person is working with in order to achieve it. And all the properties and tendencies he initially came to Kabbalah with don’t really matter at all. They are simply the attributes of his animate body.
Therefore, the entire success in advancement depends on how a person strives to engage in the group and reach unity. He will discover the force of rejection, and both of these forces will start working, sometimes in turns and other times by bumping into each other. And then he will know the force of the prayer, without which it is impossible to unify these two forces into one.
On one hand, he doesn’t wish to lose his “self” under the infinite power of the force of bestowal, but he doesn’t want to remain a slave to his egoism, the force of receiving, either. In the person, there grows an independent character who stands right in the middle between the two forces and makes decisions. He wants to rise above these two forces, the right and left, in the middle line. And this is what he asks the Creator for in his prayer.
The property of Bina that a person receives allows him to hold the two forces in balance and be above them both. He acquires the force of “receiving in order to bestow,” which lets him bestow to the Creator. Both of these forces, receiving and bestowal, reside in him while he, himself, becomes the head (Rosh) of the spiritual Partzuf and decides how and to what extent he can bestow. So does man advance along the spiritual rungs.
He asks the Creator not for one force to defeat the other, but for an opportunity to unify them together and to be above them with his “head.” This is what he thinks about all the time. And this is why he is regarded as a sage, a “sage’s disciple” (Talmid Hacham) who, thanks to his prayers, always learns from the Creator (the sage) to be able to use these two forces correctly.
Thus, a person elevates himself above Creation and becomes as the Creator, using the force of bestowal and the force of receiving while remaining above them and making decisions. In the very same manner, the creature begins to act.
[37695]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer
Related Material:
Ascending To The Original Root Of The Root Of Creation
While Losing Yourself In Others, Don’t Lose Yourself!
Gathering The World Within
Question: How does The Zohar explain the breaking in order to achieve unity? Should we expect the breaking to be revealed between us during the upcoming convention in New Jersey, or have we sufficiently realized it and now it’s time to achieve oneness?
Answer: At the last international convention in Israel, we got a “taste” of the breaking between us, our mutual distance. It produced a fairly powerful impact, and people felt that they were unable to unite: “Please, anything but this!”
This experience should bring us to the prayer, an action where we would ask to rise above this separation. We are unable to reform it, so let the Light come and correct it so that we could rise above rejection, as it is said: “Love will cover all sins.”
Therefore, while striving to unite with the others at such conventions, each of us immediately feels rejection of others and is swallowed by egoistic calculations: “Why do I need it anyway?” Or it is the other way around: A person feels how he is engaging in the others as if losing himself in them, at which point he cannot discern his own mind and thought, his own “self,” and where his criticism of the others has gone.
Thus, in seemingly successful and unsuccessful attempts to engage in the others by nullifying oneself, dissolving in them, and losing oneself, or vice versa, by becoming aware of one’s inability to unite with them, a person discerns how he can bond without losing himself, his “I.” He unifies with all, while including in this unification all the inherent evil, with all his resistance, and at the same time, with all his good, all that he has, without annulling any good or bad.
This correct discernment is, indeed, the middle line. When a person cancels his self before the group or a big gathering of people at the convention, the key for him is not to lose his capacity to think critically and continue working with the left line, knowing why and how he works. Thus, a person deposits the Aviut (coarseness) of his desire to all others, thereby creating a powerful Kli (vessel), the desire which requires a prayer. After all, we want to be loved just as we are.
[37701]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/2011, The Book of Zohar
Related Material:
Ascending To The First Level
It Is Our Job
The Right Intention Reveals The World
Question: I’m a loner by nature. And I have doubts about going to the convention where I am expected to connect and unite with other people, which is something I do not want.
Answer: I promise you that you can go to the convention and remain there alone, be an observer. But even this kind of effort is very beneficial: to come there and feel yourself unconnected to anyone.
Let this inner battle happen: Do I want to unite, am I with everyone, do they influence me, did I do the right thing by coming here, or would it have been better to stay home? All the doubts and inner analysis that a person experiences being at the convention with his body, but not the soul, and seeing how others are able to connect while he remains aside, all of it constitutes spiritual self-analysis. If he does not go through this, he will never reveal his nature, the Creator’s anti-nature, and he will have nothing to correct.
The object of correction is that very rejection, alienation, an empty vacuum that we reveal between us. In other words, I have absolutely no desire to connect with others, to be tied with or in any way dependent on them; I want nothing from them, and they better demand nothing of me.
We begin to perform our corrections in this empty vacuum that becomes revealed to us. And it is impossible to advance without having made several attempts of physical participation. There is no need to look for excuses: “Not now, I will go next time.” There will not be another chance, and the calculation here is very simple: “reward according to the effort.”
This is why our work is to rise above our rational calculations and stop making up excuses for not coming, such as personal characteristics, work, or family conditions. Try to rid yourself of all the secondary things and look the truth in the eyes: You have a chance, so make sure you are not misleading yourself by thinking that you are unable to take it.
[37785]
From the Lesson on Inner Preparation for the WE! Convention 3/10/2011
Related Material:
How Can We Tell The World About The Force Of Unity?
Crossing The Machsom Together
Light Is The Mightiest Force In The World
Question: Can we cross the Machsom during the forthcoming convention?
Answer: It is what we all expect and desire to do together! The “Machsom” is the barrier between this world and the spiritual one, that is, the replacement of the egoistic intention in man with the intention to bestow. The gap between them, the border line, the impenetrable divider, is regarded as the “Machsom” (a barrier, a roadway bar).
We all live in a unique time. Until our generation, everybody passed this barrier, the “Machsom,” individually, accumulating one’s internal efforts until a sufficient measure was collected, the “cup overflowed,” and a new state suddenly became revealed for a person.
Today we exist in a global world unfolding before us more and more. And our Kabbalistic group is not just a few people, as it used to be in the distant past when only ten Kabbalists would gather together; now, we have millions of friends around the world.
Therefore, I think we live in a new epoch when crossing the Machsom becomes as it is described in the Torah: “by the entire nation,” or en masse. I expect that revelation will occur to the whole world group or at least to some part of it that remains in constant connection with us in studies and work. That is, it will not be just a few individuals selected from the crowd, but all of us together.
After all, the process of correction has reached such advanced stages that Kabbalah has come out of concealment and become open to all. It must bring transformation not just to some small isolated group as it used to be time ago, but to a large-scale world group like ours.
[37791]
From the Lesson on Inner Preparation for the WE! Convention 3/10/2011
Related Material:
I Want To Cross The Machsom!
Unity Of Hearts
Accept The Creator’s Invitation
Humanity’s evolution demonstrates that development is a gradual and multifaceted process. It follows a specific program and direction where each element joins the general process, is “deposited” in the collective account, and thereby changes gradually accumulate.
Our internal transformation takes place in a similar manner. And even though we yearn to complete it as quickly as possible, it still takes time and requires multiple actions: We move one step ahead and one step backward, undergo ascents and descents. But transformation doesn’t occur in an instant; it is an entire process of accumulated changes where each “penny” is added into one account. And that is why it takes years.
The most effective remedy for correction is work aimed at unification. Therefore, Kabbalists place an immediate condition on a person whom the upper force brings to the group: He has to decide that the most important job is to connect with the group and unite with the others, while the studies are only the means for our unification.
In other words, it is totally contrary to what we think when we enter the group. We initially think that the group is just a place where we can study, as at a university, in order to gain knowledge. But it is the other way around, and years go by before a person starts to gradually understand that the key is not to receive knowledge, but to change one’s inner properties. By studying with the group, he receives a special, reforming force and experiences its influence specifically in his relations with the group.
Authentic results of advancement are evaluated by how much closer to or further away from the group a person feels, to what degree he needs, is able to bond with, and what value he assigns to it. Everything is measured solely relative to the group because in the end, it is they whom he must unify with in order to experience the spiritual world within their correct connection, by uniting as one man with one heart.
Around him, there aren’t just fellow students; they become parts of his soul. In fact, there is no soul within man, and scientists are wasting their time seeking it somewhere inside the body. The human soul resides in all the others. To the extent that one is able to step out of oneself and unite with the friends surrounding him, to this extent all of this “external” desire becomes his soul.
This is why we place so much importance on our conventions and similar activities, when a great number of people from around the world get together and a powerful force of oneness emerges. During each hour of the convention, we are in fact performing corrections—specifically in our mutual unification.
So, we should value such gatherings as the most important means of advancement, among all others. Nothing is more effective in terms of bringing each of us and all of us together closer to transformation and revelation of the upper world than the convention.
Even during the convention, not everything occurs at once, but “penny by penny, it is accumulated into a big sum.” It is necessary to undergo several such meetings, until we uncover the true connection between us and the upper Light becomes revealed in our unification, which is regarded as the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.
Hence, before physically going to such gathering, a person needs to prepare himself or herself mentally. One needs to attune himself so as to be ready to enter this place: get familiarized with all upcoming activities, study materials, songs, themes for discussion, and to generally learn about the convention as much as possible. Later on, it will be easier for us to focus on our internal experiences and not get distracted, not waste emotional and mental forces on the external, technical details.
So, we should get familiarized with all the materials and the entire schedule in advance and come there with a single desire: “I wish to unite with the others with all my heart and soul because the spiritual world will be revealed only in the connection between us, and not in each of us individually. I want this empty cosmos between us to be filled with warm and kind attitude toward each other since it is precisely the place where the upper force, the Creator, is revealed to the created being!”
[37800]
From the Lesson on Inner Preparation for the WE! Convention 3/10/2011
Related Material:
Convention = Acceleration
Reward According To The Effort
The Unique Force Of Kabbalah Conventions
Question: In one of your lectures you said that a person must add the Creator to his list of friends. What does that mean in our spiritual work?
Answer: If you ask psychologists, they can tell you about what happens to a young couple who has recently gotten married. When they start living together, after the honeymoon period is over, there comes a period of mutual complaints, dissatisfaction, tension, and conflicts, and now they have to work really hard in order to continue living together.
These periods can be long or short, and this depends entirely on the example they saw in their parent’s home. At this time, a young couple needs advice from psychologists or parents to help them connect on the basis of mutual respect and compromise, instead of love.
They have to learn how to avoid pressing each other’s buttons, which cause the conflicts between them while they remain inside theirs egos and are egoistically attached to their partner. This is what happens in our daily life. However, this approach doesn’t work in our spiritual development.
While advancing in spirituality, a person does have to look for these points of tension and make them visible instead of concealing them because “the Torah will come out” precisely from these points. If a person views them correctly, wishing to discern and utilize them in order to reform himself, then instead of demanding something else, he strives to attain his own inner evil.
This is possible only when a person walks along with the Creator, as if holding onto His hand, as it is written, “Come unto Pharaoh with me!” One has to discern this Pharaoh, this evil within, and then tame and reform it, unify with it, and flee from it. But while working with the evil, a person must always be bound to the goal and use the Creator’s force.
All conflicts, arguments, and tensions can be revealed between the friends in the group only on the condition that they strive for unity, if they make efforts to come together. Only then will they see that they hate one another and don’t have any desire to be one. Therefore, they must bring the Creator into it so He may reform this hate. After all, it is the Creator who shows man where his evil resides. This is the place where He doesn’t dwell, the place without Light.
[37869]
From the lesson on 2/25/11, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
The System Of Mutual Work Is The Key To Success
The Primordial Point Of Love
A One Man Show
Our entire work is in revealing an inner ability to perceive the true reality where we exist. Reality is permanent and eternal, and the only thing we lack are the senses to recognize, feel, imagine, and reveal it.
But to do this, one needs to possess the proper desires, the spiritual vessels (Kelim), he himself has prepared within. And the preparation happens in two stages: The appeal for the correction of desire, the prayer (MAN), comes first, followed by the reception of Light from Above (MAD), the upper force that comes and corrects us.
We need to sense within both the prayer (MAN) and the response to it (MAD) in all their actions because they specifically build the organs of perception within us that will enable us to reveal the Upper Light, the Creator. This is why it is written: “It is impossible to attain anything without the force of a prayer.” This is because we need to consciously go through this process, with our own desire preceding it.
But the question is where do we get the proper desire for the revelation of the Upper Light, the Creator, an opposite quality that we are absolutely not prepared for? How do we ask for and want something like this?
We already seem to want spiritual development and to search for a way to advance, but in most cases, we discover ourselves to be in absolute darkness and fog, as if we have waken early in the morning and were unable to understand what is happening to us: Where do we come from, what is our purpose, and what we are to think and want? I open the book or listen to the lesson, and nothing responds within. How am I to prepare and direct myself in the right way, at what expense? After all, a prayer must be suffered, it must be my true desire, coming from the very depth of my heart.
And here we need to understand that our entire work consists of preparing the conditions for a fast emergence of Reshimot (informational genes). To do this, one needs to try to create proper conditions for him: organize the study, participate in dissemination, have a connection with the group, receive the influence from the environment. This is because only a strong influence of the environment will help accelerate the emergence of Reshimot from concealment, from the breaking.
When we join an environment like this, we attract the general Light through it, and it begins to influence us, like the ground influences the grain in it. And when this grain feels the ground’s influence on it, it begins to awaken to life.
Our grain is already planted in the ground and all the necessary Reshimot, their entire chain, are implanted in us. Our objective is only to awaken this ground around us so it will start influencing us. The only thing expected of us is to properly and intensely operate, taking advantage of all the opportunities.
It turns out that my prayer is not directed straight at the Creator; it is as if there is no one to pray to since I don’t know who He is. A prayer begins with properly placing oneself under the influence of the given conditions. And once I am in this environment, I, together with everyone else and my aspiration for spiritual development (my Reshimo), turn to the force that influences the “grain” from the “ground,” meaning my Reshimo through the environment.
This is the force that I want to awaken, and my proper prayer is directed towards it. And remember that the Upper Light, the environment, and the Creator are in an immutable state and at rest. A person activates all these means and uses his desire to launch this entire system so it will start working with him. Otherwise, it will remain in a frozen state of anticipation.
[37561]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/2011, What is Prayer?
Related Material:
The Birth Of Intention Or Man
Spiritual Development: From Embryo To Person
Do I Exist Or Not?
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
