I always have to look for the most comfortable means that will help me feel inspired as fast as possible by the importance of the goal. This will enable me to aspire to the “place” or the “drop of unity” where I eventually hope to reveal the Creator. In this regard, everything depends on my current state. Various Reshimot are constantly surfacing in me. As a rule, I start to build the intention from an unconscious, vague, and “dry” state, without a drop of feeling and reason.

Thus, I have to awaken from this “stupor” so I burn up with such a strong desire that if I don’t reveal at this very moment what the Kabbalistic book is telling me about that “death is better” than this life without upper attainment.

We have to look for and use everything that can excite and touch us. Sometimes the group helps, reminding me about unity, mutual guarantee, and responsibility. Sometimes I am inspired by thoughts about the Creator as a wonderful, exalted goal. Sometimes I am excited by the action itself and the work to unite with friends in spite of the disturbances. It is necessary to look for means that will make me have an inextricable spiritual demand while reading the Kabbalistic texts at the lesson.

The approach to these texts has to be balanced. In principle I have reason to complain. On one hand, if I don’t understand anything at all, then I don’t have anything to latch on to. On the other hand, when I start to pay attention to the content, I feed the mind and lose the intention.

That’s why Baal HaSulam writes the following in “Letter 17”: “It’s best for you to hold on to the goal and aspire to the directions of the Host. After all, one who does not know the ways of the Host and the directions of Host, meaning the secrets of the Torah, how will he serve Him? This is the surest guarantee of the middle line out of the three.”

We aspire to understand what we have to to do, asking, “Give us the mind, give us the forces, direct us, explain it to us, show it through example so we would act correctly.” You can demand all of this from the Creator the way a child demands it from an adult. From the child’s end only a desire is necessary, while the adults provide him with all that is necessary. I collect this desire in the group, from my friends. Therein lies my free choice.

From Above I receive everything I need on the spiritual path, besides the demand, which I have to develop on my own. It will come only when I get inspired from the environment by the greatness of the goal. Then the inspiration will break out of the heart and I will aspire to the directions of the Host with all of my strength in order to learn to serve Him.
[29620]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, The Zohar

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Question: Why didn’t the Creator arrange it so we would already now feel everyone as organs of our own body?

Answer: It’s because you have to reveal the form of bestowal from its opposite. From hatred, reception, and exploitation of your neighbor, you have to attain love and unity.

Imagine that you suddenly found out that your greatest enemy, whom you desired to crush and obliterate using every possible execution technique, is actually your own son who you did not know anything about, just like in a movie.

You don’t understand this now, but try to enter the group and imagine that you are tuning into the common desire. Don’t look at the faces, but look at the desire that everyone shares and delve inside it. Then through that desire, you will feel that you are surrounded by special souls and only you are looking at them from aside. Try to enter inside them and to cancel yourself completely.

Through this self-nullification you will begin to live! Stay in this thought at all times so it won’t leave your mind. Make the decision that from now on this is how you want to look at the world.

Try to stay in this sensation until tomorrow, constantly renewing it and bringing this picture back. Then at the next lesson you will be ready to bring it to life! You will imagine what takes place inside these desires, which are connected with each other: How Partzufim AB and SAG operate and what Rabbi Shimon is telling his friends. It all speaks only about this desire and the connection among its parts.

Desires that are pure or impure, corrected or not yet corrected; everything is inside one system that you are now revealing. You want to reveal life, the vital force in this system and yourself inside of it, as well as to understand how everything works. This is exactly what all the Kabbalistic books talk about and you want this to become revealed.

When the connection between all parts of the desire and the harmony in which they operate becomes revealed, this practical revelation of the correct, operating connection is called the revelation of the Creator. After that the Creator or this connection will continue being revealed more and more, which signifies ascent along the degrees of the worlds toward ever greater revelation of the Creator.

The Creator is called Bo-Reh, meaning "come and see" how the system works in mutual bestowal, how the Light operates inside the desires or Kelim.
[29653]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress"

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Question: How does a person with the desire “Israel” fulfill the desires of others in practice?

Answer: Everything happens within the desire. As a person gets corrected, he begins to sense the desires of other people, to connect the entire desire of the collective soul to himself. Then he fills it. Clearly, he does not wander among the people and ask what they want to be filled with.

Similarly, to enter the group means to feel the desire of the group in the connection between us, which exists inside the group, even if we do not perceive it. However, I want to participate in this connection consciously, sensing it fully, openly!

I see that we are separated, but Kabbalists write that there is a connection between us. And I want to reveal it clearly, to connect to it with all my mind and heart.

When I connect to the group, when I start working this way and this layer [of reality] becomes revealed to me, I suddenly discover that the entire world functions in the same manner. All of a sudden I realize that all people are the Creator’s workers, and I dwell in Shechina. I only have to help the others realize it themselves. After all, the Creator wishes for this to be revealed to everybody!
[29545]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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In “Introduction to TES,” Baal HaSulam explains that everything depends on the efforts. But it’s not simply efforts. When a person starts to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, he does not yet have any notion of what the spiritual world is. He reckons that spiritual pleasures will open up in his egoistic desires.

That is why in the beginning he exerts effort in the usual way, and he cannot really act otherwise. He is ready to invest his strength, the accumulated knowledge, intellect, and feelings, without realizing that on this path his personal “baggage” will not help. In order to come out into the spiritual world, we need the force which comes from Above.

But gradually, the studying and the group do their job, and the person begins to understand that the usual scheme does not work here. He heard this before, but now he realizes in practice that he needs to reveal all features of a new picture within himself.

He gets disappointed in the “logical” approach and in the game with the feelings. He discovers that everything he has does not suit spiritual development at all. New Kelim (vessels, desires) are needed here, which cannot be found in oneself, but must be received from Above.

In this way, the Light which arrives during the studies changes the person. But he sees it only by the results, by the internal changes, by the new way he relates to bestowal. Kabbalists have explained everything to us, only we do not really want to implement it: You do not need to be very smart to understand that our intellect is absolutely not suited for the spiritual world.

For thousands of years we have been developing from generation to generation, and each one was smarter than the previous one. We, ourselves, see how our children easily grasp everything that came to us with much difficulty.

We should understand that this whole process of egoistic growth is intended to bring a person to despair, when he will no longer have anything to take from the world. I come to the conclusion that everything the world can offer is not enough for me, thus reaching the “ceiling,” the end of the road.

This way, I strive for something higher, I want something that exists above the “ceiling.” It is then that the point in the heart starts to speak within me. So how can I ascend toward the place where it is calling me to? This, I do not know.

A new desire awaits me there, completely new instruments of perception, a new feeling, and a new intellect. But they need yet to be acquired. That is why I arrive at the wisdom of Kabbalah, the group, and the teacher. By using them correctly, I attract the Light that Reforms, and only this Light leads me to the goal.

The new feeling and the new intellect are being formed, born, are emerging within me, and I begin to look at the world in a new way. The old picture recedes to the side and a new picture takes its place. This, in fact, is a new world.

[29350]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, Writings of Rabash, Dargot Hasulam, Article 545

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“No pain, no gain,” as the saying goes. Whatever goal I choose to pursue, good or bad, it requires effort. Workers labor at a job, as do thieves, scientists, athletes, and so on. Any achieved desire demands work.

After all, the creature is made of the desire for pleasure, and, like any matter, it strives for rest. Therefore, any movement (action) requires energy (motivation) from us. This rule governs all levels of nature, from still to speaking.

In our world, parallel to the growth of egoism, we exert more and more effort in order to achieve the desired result and gain pleasure.

Describing the spiritual world, Kabbalists also emphasize the rule: “The measure of suffering determines the measure of reward,” “I labored and found.” The formula remains the same, but it includes a provision: Spiritual actions are performed outside of the desire for pleasure.

After the desire of human degree, the yearning for equivalence to the Creator, His revelation, emerges in a person and he finds the group, his development continues according to the following order:

1. I study the wisdom of Kabbalah in the group in order to unite.
2. My egoism grows solely by way of the studies. It is now a totally different ego, unlike ordinary egoism of the corporeal world. As it grows, I begin to understand how inadequate I am to the goal, bestowal. I discover my hate towards the friends and for unification.
3. I need awareness of the importance of the goal, and this awareness comes from the studies and the group as well.
4. I fall into crisis and don’t know what to do when I realize I need the help of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif).
5. I begin studying differently, in order to draw the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) in the group.
6. And then I find!

It is not as easy to realize egoism on the spiritual path as it is in the corporeal world. In this world, I simply make an effort and achieve a result. In contrast, spiritual growth requires the growth of egoism that resist unification. Parallel to it, the importance of bestowal has to increase as well; otherwise, what for should I labor?

I study in order to draw the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), and only then do I find what I desire. What is this finding? It is bestowal.

Thus, we acquire a second nature. We started with a will to receive, but in the end our nature becomes bestowal. And while we are seeking, we must exert our own efforts along with the influence of the Surrounding Light.

[29354]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, Writings of Rabash, Dargot Hasulam, Article 545

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It is enough if we desire to unite, and the Light will unify us. Each of us has a desire that has been evolving for thousands of years and a point that has emerged just now and is pulling us toward something unknown.

But it isn’t enough! We are dealing with a bipolar effect, a split desire: One part is pulling it to one side, this world, and the other, the “point in the heart,” pulls it in the opposite direction, to the spiritual world. What do I do with this bipolarity?

All you can do is override one desire with the other. This is why I enter the group and receive from it additional desire into the point in the heart. I obtain it thanks to the efforts I put into the group and due to the fact that I am not trying to break into the spiritual world, but rather act according to the rule of “from the love of friends to love for the Creator.” In other words, I put my efforts into our unified desire.

And then from the group, I receive the strength that includes the initial force of my point in the heart and what the group has added to it. This additional power that I receive is called “spiritual yearning” (Ishtotekut). And my initial desire is called Ratzon. Therefore, Kabbalists point out that in order to reach the upper world, it is necessary to have “Ratzon ve Ishtotekut” (see Part 1, Talmud Eser Sefirot).

The Upper Light acts upon this specific yearning built above my own natural desire and performs a correction within me: It unites me with the others into one collective desire, the place where the Creator will be revealed.
[29363]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, "The Freedom"

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A person instinctively feels that this world cannot satisfy him. Some are more idle, others less, but everyone has a desire, a wish for something that he is ready to enjoy, and the only question is how much effort one is prepared to invest in order to get what he wants.

In truth, the problem lies in whether or not I arrange the order of priorities, the scale of values. Suppose I wish to become as wealthy as Rothschild. I then begin thinking: "Even if I achieve success, it will take an entire lifetime. Is it worth it? It probably is not." Everyone makes their own calculation, depending on the circumstances. We weigh and compare the profitability of certain goals in life.

What should I do if I find many goals I would like to achieve? Spirituality also appears on this list, perhaps as first, second, or tenth. But additionally there are more profitable things: wealth, recognition, health, and so on. It turns out that our challenge is in elevating the importance of spirituality in our eyes, raising it from the bottom of the list to the very first priority.

This can be accomplished only with the help of the group. The environment has the capacity to obligate me to think in a certain way, even if it is totally unjustified from the point of view of egoism. The spiritual world for me is something blurry; I don’t see anything useful in it, and yet, I begin wishing to enter it.

If the group gives such importance to and talks about it, and if from every direction I hear about the exalted nature of a spiritual goal, then I, too, start yearning for it, even if unaware of what it is. I wish for it more than anything else.

Thus, the problem is not in my individual desire. Do not be distressed if it is weak and overpowered by desires of the heart, the intellect, and even the stomach. I should only worry over the fact that I don’t wish to enter the group that will elevate the spiritual goal for me. And that is the problem.

We have repeatedly heard about Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma who refused to leave his disciples for the sake of an honorable and well-paid position in another city. After all, they were the ones who gave him the importance of bestowal. They may have been beginners, knowing nothing yet, but their hearts were burning and that was more than enough. They again and again awakened him.

Similarly, someone at a higher spiritual degree, surrounded by the lower degrees, becomes inspired by them. We “plant” our children in the same way, like a seed planted in soil, which begins sprouting. The earth, the still level, supplies the seedling with mineral, salts, and other nourishment. The sun, air, and water are also elements belonging to the inanimate level, but these specific forces cause them to bloom in to the next spiritual degree.

If you lower your head before the group, despite the fact that you think they are beneath you, then their influence and desire elevates you to bestowal, and you bloom.
[29347]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, Writings of Rabash, Dargot Hasulam, Article 545

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Question: How do we calm down the ego which demands constant fulfillment?

Answer: You’ll never be able to overcome your ego with your own strength. Even if you think that in the past you were able to do so, that was only an illusion. You were simply fulfilling your desire to receive pleasure.

We are going through a preparation period, and at its first stage we seem to be able to achieve something with our own strength, to advance with the help of knowledge by overcoming ourselves. But it all ends after our desire to receive gets some fulfillment. However, without this desire you wouldn’t be able to study and gain the foundation for the beginning of spiritual work. In other words, at first you are led by your ego, and this is called “seven years of plenty.”

Then you suddenly cool off to studying; you ran out of fuel and feel tired of everything. Now you’ve entered the second stage of the preparation period. You are no longer led by the ego and you need a new stimulus: studies with intention and the environment.

Now you have to advance by receiving strength from the group and not from your own desire. The purpose of your studies shouldn’t be to obtain knowledge, but rather to build the correct intention for your desires, which you receive from the group. You must unite with the group in order to reveal the Creator.

For now you’re doing it for the sake of self. However, by continuously doing this work and as a result of the Light’s influence, you gradually begin to feel that bestowal is good. You receive the desire to bestow from the group and begin to demand this quality from your studies. Bestowal frees you from the ego, from your evil inclination, and elevates you above this corporeal life.

Later, due to the influence of the Upper Light and connecting with friends in the group, you begin to understand that your goal is not to reveal the Creator and the spiritual world, but rather to adhere to Him, to bestow to Him rather than to receive from Him. By uniting Israel, the Torah, and the Creator into one, by striving to give the Creator pleasure, you receive the perfect formula for your spiritual ascent.
[29014]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, “Introduction to The Study of Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What should I do if I don’t wish to be part of the group and am only pretending because I am told that it is necessary for reaching the goal?

Answer: I should pretend not because I must but in order to help the friends, give them strength. In truth, I play against and confuse my egoism. I put in all my strength, but it is insufficient. In the meantime, I realize that if the group radiates all its might toward me, I will get inspired and be able to rise above myself. So how do I instill such “illumination” in the group?

To achieve this, I perform bestowal to the friends. I pass my awakening onto them, envelop them in warmth, and inspire them despite lacking it myself. I intentionally pretend in order to receive the same from the friends in response, only one hundred times more. After all, my pretense ignites them, whether they like it or not. And it doesn’t matter that I am lying; they get inspired nonetheless and radiate it back to me.

Hence, it turns out that my artificially blown out spark becomes a real flame. I started with pretense, but as a result, got truly ignited. And all this fire coming from the desire is mine. By utilizing the environment, I have accomplished the goal of transforming egoism into bestowal.

The group, like an amplifier, has multiplied my first meek inspiration manifold. And now, with this hard-earned desire, I turn very seriously to the Creator and without any falsehood.
[28899]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Who Created These”

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