Good Environment – 02.01.11
Posted on February 1st, 2011
Question: If we are egoists, it means that any desire to bestow is an illusion, doesn’t it?
Answer: It’s a total illusion, an absolute lie. If I think about someone, I think about myself, adding to it a pseudo-connection with another person. In truth, it doesn’t exist; there is nobody else. All my perceptions and impressions remain in my desire, and this is the only premise upon which I can make a calculation.
Question: Why, then, do we sit here and hope that we will wish to bestow? How could such a desire emerge in us?
Answer: This occurs because our desire is able to experience itself as such deep within, while on the outside, it can feel as if it isn’t itself, but somebody else. Nothing was broken but the thought, the intention, the idea that we are all fragmented and disconnected. Desire itself cannot break; it was the intention that broke, the awareness of oneness.
Therefore, we fall into the illusion that the one desire created by the Creator is split, fractured, and broken into multiple pieces. This illusion appears within the desire itself.
We have internal Kelim (vessels, desires), the “root,” “soul,” “body,” in which I experience my “self.” In addition, I have external Kelim, a “garment” and a “chamber,” which I perceive as not my “self.” If I tear my clothes, I won’t scream with pain. I don’t feel the surroundings, despite the fact that it is my desire as well. Simply such peculiarities, the lack of sensitivity, appeared in it.
Imagine, if you will, that you could feel all the Kelim in their authentic form. Then, all of reality would be your own “flesh” for you. More than that, somebody would scratch a wall with a nail, and you would scream with pain.
Our difficulty is the lack of intention. The intention became corrupted, and now we don’t see the desires of “others” as relevant to us. It all depends on what is revealed to a person. Our sole job is to integrate desires within. While they remain unchanged, it is the intention that matters: whether it is to receive or to bestow.
[33734]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, Writings of Rabash
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Question: You are saying that our desire to give is make-believe.
Answer: Of course, it’s make-believe now. Why would I want something so “otherworldly?” What would I get in return?
For instance, being hungry myself, would I be able to feel another person’s hunger? No, I wouldn’t if such a calculation is not “in sync” with my Kelim (vessels). A person always acts based on desire. How can I want something beyond the reach of my desire? It’s impossible; it’s not instilled in nature.
A tree is a tree, a stone is a stone, and a desire is a desire. The mind is next to it, assisting it to be filled with the desired. There’s nothing else.
Ultimately, we are talking about the very simple “building blocks” of the universe which operate on a binary principle: yes or no. There is no multiplicity nor complication. All that is complex is a sum of these binary components that represent existence or absence. There is no in-between, only total darkness or total light. Then, the very same binary elements generate and build a whole system of nuanced relationships between them.
So, if I want something, I am thinking only about what I want. If I really want something specific, such as a carrot, it means I don’t feel any lack for a banana. The banana doesn’t exist for me at that moment; I am fixated on what I want. This can be seen clearly with children. Computer memory-elements function according to the same principle as do our neurons: yes or no, a “click” or its absence.
Therefore, it simply can’t be that being a receiving desire, I would feel in it a desire to give. I neither understand nor feel what others want. I can feel inside of me only a form called “the other,” but it manifests itself inside my desire.
[33737]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, Writings of Rabash
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Question: How can a person tell that he is acting from the point in the heart, rather than avoiding the suffering of the outside world?
Answer: Does a person act in the group based on the point in the heart rather than his or her egoism? Does he direct himself toward a group instead of the outside world? He does if he puts the desires, goals, means, and efforts of his friends above his own.
What if the friends are wrong? They are always right. Actually, even if they are wrong, what difference does it make to me? What’s most important is that I am part of them. That’s the only choice I’ve got.
Suppose all of them are against my opinion. I’m one hundred percent right, but they are united as one. It means I have to annul myself and go along with them. However, they are wrong, aren’t they? It does not matter. In the spiritual world, the collective, the connection, always prevails.
Approximately two and a half thousand years ago there lived a great sage, Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma. He had, let’s say, a dozen students. Once, he was asked to move to another place, but he replied, “I can’t leave them because then I will lose everything there is within me.” This was despite the fact that he was a great sage of that generation. Who were they compared to him? “They are nobodies,” he said, “but when they are together, I connect to them and receive everything through them. On my own, directly, I cannot receive anything.”
After all, the receiving vessel, the detector, the locator, is the group. Let the group consist of nobodies, beginners; it doesn’t matter whom. If they unite with one another, that’s it; it’s enough. A sage who connects to them adds sensitivity to them and, thus, perceives everything.
On their own, they don’t understand or sense a thing. They’ve just huddled together like calves. However, having united with them, he receives the Light that he wouldn’t have received without them. By gradually conducting their unity through him, they, too, begin to grow. That is what is happening in the world. Therefore, only unity brings the right result.
There are a lot of “smart” people in the group, really clever, serious, very intelligent individualists, and their achievements are worth nothing! When I consider the result that we have to achieve as a group, I know for certain: Even if a person is smart, generates great ideas, performs any assignment brilliantly, and achieves amazing results, all that eventually leads nowhere. If he lacks spiritual direction, he won’t grow as a result of his or her efforts, although on the outside, everything may seem perfect.
All things spiritual are achieved only through unity. If beginners gather together, even though they may be small, by uniting, they achieve greater results than individuals who are great, wise, and perhaps Kabbalists already. Rabbi Yossi wouldn’t have achieved anything without his group. That’s why he didn’t leave it.
[33991]
From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”
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We have a very unusual group: It is not on land, but on water. It’s composed of our sailor friends from the Ukraine who are contracted to work on the "Gulf Service" floating ship near the shores of Angola.
The group was formed by Maxim. In January 2010 he attended his first mega convention in Odessa, and he was so inspired by it that he gathered a group on the ship. Now they watch the daily Kabbalah lessons, the gatherings of friends, and all the conventions together with us.
They download all their lessons and events once every six months when they are on leave. Our friends from different countries around the world keep in touch with them.
Every letter we receive from our friends is filled with warmth and love and emanates the greatness of the goal and the group. No distance exists for them; they are always completely informed and at the center of all our events.
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Question: Why do we need to work on ourselves specifically in a group? Why can we not work on ourselves through interaction with the external world?
Answer: First of all, we need to work among ourselves in a group instead of the external world because Kabbalists recommend it. Why do they recommend this specifically? It is because together, we need to create a common desire which will have similar properties to the properties of the Creator, and then we will be able to reveal Him.
If I were to come up to a person on the street and tell him, “Let’s love one another,” he might think that I am gay. In reality, the property of love is the Creator’s property. It is His main property that is revealed before us. I need to attain this property one way or another. How do I do this? Only by being with people who understand me.
So, this means that we must unite our desires and feel one another as if we all were together, one whole. The common universal egoism is pushing us toward this.
Globalization, the interconnection that is becoming revealed, and the blows of nature, all moves us in one direction and forces us to become closer to “huddle up” like little animals who have nowhere to hide. All the miseries that are about to befall us will force us to become closer. It’s for us to become closer on the inside, instead of simply crowding up in one territory.
Nature will work systematically; it will hit in one place. This is why we need to “huddle up” with the people who understand us, and together create a common desire. As soon as we create it, this will be the group turning into one heart, one desire. Then, to the extent of our unification, we will feel the Creator: the manifestation of the Light of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida between us.
All the souls together are included among them into the entire world, but being a part of them, we have already united and passed this entire Light through us. Now, it gradually flows over to the other souls, and they also begin to awaken. They suddenly begin to feel that we have a special kind of fulfillment. And people will feel drawn to us. We will see them join.
But in order for this to happen, you first need to carry out a special condition so that there would be Light in you. This is why you cannot work with other people who do not have any of this. This flows out of the condition of correction of the worlds, and Kabbalah prescribes this. Why? It’s because this is the law of nature.
We need to begin with the uncorrected desires that are closest to the Light. By correcting them, we can use them to descend to a level below, desires that are less corrected. As we correct them, we descend into the even less corrected desires. We constantly go from easier work to harder work. This is the same way we also develop in our lives. We gradually solve all the problems from simple to complicated. This is a natural law of nature.
[33999]
From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”
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By coming out of my sensations and trying to be in someone else, I don’t step into his or her egoistic properties, but rather come into contact with what they aren’t yet: with their soul, with their spiritual potential. I don’t fulfill their egoistic, corporeal part, but instead I form in them myself, my spiritual image (Partzuf).
In truth, my soul is all I can fill in the others. A soul does not reside in the person. “A soul” is desire, and desire is not matter; it cannot be weighed on a scale. It is a field, a force, a force of desire that I direct to the others while it links with and remains in them as a record, as information that I enter into them, wishing to fulfill them.
My desire is scattered among all souls, all individual and common desires of people. At first, I am not even aware of it, and only later when I ascend to high spiritual degrees, do I start actively fulfilling them. Thus, such yearning outwardly forms a human soul.
The body dies since it is a mere animate organism which has no substance. What matters is how much of myself I managed to transfer into others with my desires. It is not actions which are required here, neither is it money or forces, but only desires. After all, desire is the greatest force in the world. It is the only thing that makes one person interact with another.
Hence, the friend’s role in the group is defined by what each of them will deposit into the others. Whether I like it or not, what the others plant in me starts influencing me. The global crisis reveals our egoistic interconnection; in the same manner, we are intertwined in our souls.
Generally speaking, a soul is something collective. There is one soul, one human, one Adam. And we, his particles, don’t yet comprehend that we are completely tied to one another, like parts of its spiritual organism, a spiritual system.
Therefore, everybody’s impact on all the others is direct and natural, exposed from one straight to the other. If we understand this, we gain a remarkable opportunity to selectively influence people and each other: pull, push, elevate, and help everybody. If we did employ this principle, we would definitely make a tremendous leap forth.
If each member of the group, man and woman alike, realizes this, then with their inner yearnings they can elevate us all right now. This depends solely on our internal desires, or rather, intention. Intention is an unfulfilled desire which is yet to come true. It is the most powerful force in the universe.
We see with the example of our world: The greater the physical force is, the less tangible it is. Who can feel the force of atomic interaction? And nonetheless, it can produce an explosion of enormous power from two pounds of matter. Intangible waves and emanations play a tremendous role in our life. And the force of thought, the force of desire, is the greatest of all.
Therefore, the key on our path is our intentions: How correctly we can form and connect them with one another. This means that each of us strives to live in the others, step out of oneself, their body, and start sensing the soul.
It is an incredible feeling when a person isn’t tied to their material body. Having stepped out of it, they start treating it as an “animate consort”: a horse, a donkey, a cow, a dog, and so on. They look after their body but absolutely don’t associate themselves with the life inside the “mammal.” They already feel that life goes on outside of them, in the enormous force field of the supreme mind.
[34032]
From Lesson 4 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011
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Question: What is the friend’s role in the integral system?
Answer: The role of the friend is enormous and invaluable. A person ascends to the extent that he or she helps all the others to unify. A person never works for himself directly, but always through the others.
In our world, I always pursue my own goal: I place myself and all the others in order and calculate what is best for me. Even ten people later, the benefit still has to return to me.
In the spiritual world, it isn’t the case. There, I calculate how much I can contribute to others so that it stays in them, not in me. My egoistic “self” eventually dies away, and what I have invested in the others (as I would in the bank, except that it would be to the others’ account rather than mine) remains. In the end, when I rise above my “self,” everything I had invested in the others becomes mine. It is as though I live in them, like a mother who lives in her children whom she takes care of.
The spiritual world is founded on this maternal attribute: on bestowal, love, shifting from oneself outward. As a result, we start experiencing ourselves living in others, and this state is perceived as eternal, complete. It isn’t dictated by my own state of existence, including my body. The body may even die, but “I” already live in other desires, other properties.
[34035]
From Lesson 4 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011
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The Light that Reforms is the Light used to correct the desires, Kelim (vessels), and it fills the entire reality of a created being. It’s the same very Light, but you utilize it to transform the Kelim.
Suppose I am standing before a beautifully set table filled with fine delicacies, but I don’t have much desire to eat. I am told: “You should still eat something! True, you are sick and have no appetite, but at least try, little by little!” And I eat without any desire, just to give my health a boost. As a result, I recover and start eating the same meal enjoying it immensely.
The recipes haven’t changed, my attitude to them has. Previously, I used them to get better, and it is called “the Light that Reforms,” the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), “repentance from fear,” the degree of Bina. Later, I transformed myself and started to employ these desires by receiving in order to bestow. Then, this Light transformed into the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) for me.
Who made alterations in the Light? I did. Which Light is this? It all depends on how I relate to it: It’s Hassadim for correction of desires, and it’s Hochma for their fulfillment. If I wish to transform my attitude to the others, I need to perform the correction first, and it means that I use the same Light as “Hafetz Hesed” (desiring nothing for self gratification). The Light is bestowal. And then, I can employ the same Light, bestowal, enjoying the fact that I bestow.
Bestowal, the Creator, the Light, fills our reality. We reside within it, and everything depends on our attitude. Our relation to the Light determines where we are: either in this world or in the upper one, at various degrees and different states.
[33654]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Two Points”
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If I truly wish for the Light to come to me, I have to ask for transformation of my entire spiritual vessel (Kli): from Keter to Malchut. In spirituality there cannot be any partial decisions, when I am “almost willing” but not completely. I must demand this correction for all my “10 Sefirot” for all the four levels of desire: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.
Once I know my evil at all the four levels, then I can draw the Light that Reforms. My desire for this to occur has to be so intense that I will feel it with every fiber of my being, “to my very bones.”
However, if I awaken on my own right now and start demanding the Surrounding Light, scream, and ask for correction, it’s great, but it won’t help. Desire to which the Light responds must reside between the souls, in their relationships with one another.
In other words, I need to inspire myself to sing with the others, dance, and perform certain actions so that all of this would help me engage in the group: bond with the environment and demand from it to tune me to bestowal. Let it give me the desire to be in bestowal and become one with the others.
In the degree of my eagerness to bond with the environment, I will receive a reaction, a desire from it. And if I use this new desire to appeal to the Surrounding Light, then I have a chance to have it work on me.
Therefore, I must motivate myself to appeal to the group and in return receive inspiration from it, which would impress me. Then I can turn to the Surrounding Light. After all, if I appeal to the group, it is a sign of the following:
In other words, it is a correct request; it forms me in the spiritual direction correctly. If I am willing to accept everything they give me by faith above reason and emotion, as if from the most spiritual source, it means I am prepared to be transformed. This means I have risen above my egoism, have become aware that I am a total zero, and now desire correction. And the only correction I want is to be able to bestow.
Such a request will definitely be answered by the Surrounding Light since it corresponds with its nature, “the reforming Light, precisely. And I ask to bring me back to it!
[33677]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot
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