How do we lead ourselves to a state where we will feel ourselves and others as one whole? It’s done by building a certain environment, and that doesn’t even need to be proven. Out of everything that surrounds us, an environment is the only tool that is capable of influencing us and with which we can influence ourselves.

If I influence others and arrange everything in such a way that they influence me in a certain way, this influence, moving through them and coming back to me, is perceived by me as an external influence. And that external influence changes me.

An environment builds a person. If a child is left in the woods, he will grow into the same animal like those that surround him. If he or she is sent into a good pre-school and school, he will become what that environment builds out of him or her. Therefore, we only have to care about the environment.

The environment can make us become anyone. An environment has power over us specifically because we are integrally connected. Each of us is a part of the whole system, a small cell in a huge organism, and it’s through this organism that its idea, power, plan, precise thoughts, and feelings become ours. We can’t resist them because we are included in this system.

We build such an environment together, but in fact, every one of us has to learn how to do that. Our goal is to consciously enter the next degree with the understanding of what we do.

For the first time, man becomes the creator of a new level in nature. Practically speaking, he doesn’t create anything specific, but rather consciously adjusts himself to this system. He becomes Adam (man). “Adam” comes from the word “Domeh,” similar to the next level of nature.

Thereby, he begins to understand the whole system of nature: How universal thought works, how it is governed, and why this happens this way and not the other. He begins to attain the purpose of creation and rises above the entire nature we perceive (still, vegetative, and animate) to the level of “Adam” (man) who is similar to all of nature in its higher design, through the entire noosphere, the higher dimension.

Sooner or later, we will reach that, but the questions is at what price. It’s either we go through great sufferings that will force us to change or we build a society that beckons us, adjusts us to this integral nature, and we consciously, with understanding, aspire to it with our desire and thus make our world better.
[59517]
From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/16/2011

Related Material:
Environment In Place Of The Creator
The Method Of Integral Connection
The Need To Connect

Filed under: Collective Soul, Inner Work, Mutual Guarantee Movement - No Comments →

We begin our spiritual path by an awakening from Above, from a so-called “point in the heart.” It awakens during one of our reincarnations at a certain moment under certain circumstances. We don’t know why, but a person suddenly lacks a sensation of fulfillment in his desire to enjoy in anything that he does in life.

On the other hand, he starts sensing a new, additional desire that draws him somewhere.  As it often happens in our life, he begins to feel both points simultaneously. Let’s say, he gets disappointed in some work; it seems to him that some other occupation could satisfy him better. He gets dissatisfied in various life situations and at the same time begins to see new possibilities.

The same applies here. Eventually, I become disappointed in my life, and this doesn’t require dramatic circumstances, like bankruptcies or other problems. I simply don’t feel satisfaction. At the same time, I start following a new, unclear direction, and I arrive at a place that seems to better fulfill me.

What’s the difference? So far, there is no difference. Many people join various circles, societies, groups, or New Age spiritual movements, or they fulfill themselves by playing sports or getting involved in various hobbies.

At first, when a person finds the wisdom of Kabbalah, it’s not clear to him what’s going on and how this is different from other places. He hears: “If you want to achieve anything, you should join the group,” but this idea doesn’t seem to be special since there are so many other places where the same condition is brought forward.

Very seldom is a person required to unite with others; usually it entails an exquisitely external effort. Every so often he is expected to make an internal effort to connect with others, for example, let’s say a military unit in which everybody should take care of others in order to achieve the goal, which is clearly egoistic.

This is very different in a Kabbalistic group. They say: “Only by reaching bestowal will you gain a general force of giving.” But where do you get it? Not only should you strive to connect with your friends, but you also should demand that a new special force reveals itself from within your unity.

This force will reveal itself as a result of your new activities, meaning your desire to connect in a non-egoistic way, like in a military team, but rather in accordance with advice of Kabbalists, the teachers who lead us towards a new upper dimension. If you listen to what they say and read what they write about the upper dimension, you’ll join the group and will try to reach unity with your friends. You’ll also learn how to love your friends, and you’ll read books that elucidate the connection and love between you.

You should expect that the books and the efforts to connect with others will reveal a new force called “bestowal and love.” Thus you will grow from within this force of love and bestowal. The upper force that shines within you will grant you this sensation.
[59528]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
“Call Upon Him While He Is Near”
The Method Of Ascension
Bestowal Without Reward

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

We should always strive for perfection! A person develops only because he constantly walks the right line, which is expressed by happiness. We should always picture the good states: the states of development, ascent, high spirits, awe, the Creator’s greatness, and the importance of the goal.

This is what all our work and concern should be aimed at so we do not allow the ego to bring us to despair. This is very important.

Sometimes it may seem that we drown in self-criticism and seriously and painfully delve into ourselves. These may be considered signs of a great man working on himself. Yet it isn’t working on yourself, but rather following your egoism.

Being serious doesn’t mean to walk around with a sad face, but to be in great tension, to constantly keep the feeling of the greatness of the goal. You should raise yourself to the image of the desired goal as you imagine it. This should keep you in constant yearning and awe to reach the state of bestowal upon the Creator, to please Him as a loved one.

It says: “You shall have no other gods.” Can you imagine a situation in which only the Creator is in front of you as your constant goal? If so, you should develop your attitude towards Him and understand how, under what conditions, and in which case can you bestow upon Him? It is only when you are together with the friends yearning to be with them. That is, we have a common desire, one direction, in which everyone connects and is drawn to Him in order to make Him happy. After all, there is nothing else we can give Him!

To imagine this situation and to live with this yearning is the initial state from which a person begins the right movement towards the goal. This is called the right line.

When the left light appears opposite to this, we will understand that it was given to us so that we will raise the right line even higher until we attain actual bestowal. We can reach it only if the left line grows, and we advance above it.
[59428]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Bestowal Brings Joy
Joy Is A Result Of Good Deeds
The Joy Of Faith In The Teacher

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

It is written that the students of Rabbi Shimon, before writing The Book of Zohar, felt an enormous hatred toward each other, seething like a flame. Then, they would start to work on The Book of Zohar that had not yet been written, to study the connection between them, meaning that they would begin to build a connection with one another based on hatred. Then, with an inspiration and an enormous force of overcoming, they would reveal the flame of love instead of the flame of hatred, as it is written: “A white fire on the basis of a black flame.”

Thus, they described their revelations, the forms of relationships between them, revealing love above hatred. In fact, that is the essence of Torah and The Zohar.

If one day we reveal such relationships, we will understand what they wrote about in The Zohar. Until then, let’s try to yearn toward connection with one another, and as a result, reveal an even greater rejection. And again, based on that, let’s seek unity and reveal an even greater rejection. Thus we will feel such “entries” and “exits” each time, as it is said: “From Zion (“Zion” derives from the word “Yetzia,” exit) will the Torah come forth”—specifically from exits. That is how we advance.

Thus, while reading The Zohar, let’s think only about the states of separation and unity. There is nothing else. The authors of The Zohar write about these states and the contrasts between them, only on the spiritual degrees, where real hatred becomes aroused and true love reigns.
[59616]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, The Zohar

Related Material:
Open The Faucet Of The Upper Light
The Remedy For Helplessness
The Entire Universe Is In The Drop Of Unity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: How can I keep the general picture in mind, no matter what part of it we study?

Answer: Only the reforming Light will depict this picture. You can write in bold letters: “Our goal is adhesion with the Creator.” The problem is that the slogans themselves don’t explain anything, and what’s more, they blur details. I would like to keep one phrase in mind and not remove it from my insight. But I still have to realize it.

Besides the Light, we have no other way, no means to perform any changes. The Light operates all the time in a predetermined pace, constantly creating the internal and external conditions for us, as the general direction is for the worse. If we succeed in drawing this Light so that it will reform us, dramatic conflicts between its nature and ours will not be necessary. But it can all take place in the opposite direction.

In any case, there is nothing that we need besides the Light, the vessel, and our current state. It is the Light that shows us the problems and the growing threats, and it is the Light that will correct you and free you from these horrible conflicts if you ask for it.

It will correct you by means of the environment. There is no other way. It is time for the world to understand what many experts already do: A clear mutual connection has been formed among us, which cannot be torn apart, so only the love of others can save our lives from mass destruction. Even if we don’t feel it at first, there should be cooperation, mutual guarantee.

In the meantime, not everyone notices the strings that connect us. But when each of us feels in his bones that he is totally connected to others in every possible way, people will need this method.
[59323]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
The Way To Mutual Guarantee
Why Can’t We Relax?
We Are Educators

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Mutual Guarantee Movement, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: When I check my integrity, I see that I can’t constantly worry about mutual guarantee. I find it much easier to take some concrete external issue and make a check mark in my diary.

Answer: This is also good. The “check marks” are also necessary. After all, our way is all about the recognition of evil. The problem is that we hardly see that we advance.

I feel stupid, but I still come to study and participate in the group activities. I feel desperate, helpless, and lacking in intention, but still I go on. At the same time, I don’t understand that it is the Light that operates on me in this way. If it weren’t for the Light, I wouldn’t be able to move. I would totally collapse.

So I experience ups and downs simultaneously. Although you feel desperate, you can still go on. Although you feel disrespect and regret, you still hug your friends and sing with them. If you are constantly moving forward, falling but also rising, these are not separate periods of despair and encouragement that change from time to time, but rather two lines that are opposite each other and between which there is the amplitude of the states you are in. This is already a sign of advancement.

You should understand that if I recognize the evil in me more accurately today, it is already a great step forward because it is the Light that reveals in me what I couldn’t see previously. Yesterday I thought that I don’t harm you in any way, and today I am surprised to discover that I treat you badly. Tomorrow I will feel sorry that I can’t change.

On one hand, this makes me feel more desperate, and on the other, I should say to myself: “Just a minute, where does all this come from? I feel worse because a greater Light flows upon me. So this is a sign that I am winning, I am growing, and the evil inclination is growing with me, in competition with me.”

The quality of the evil revealed in me is a sign of advancement. It isn’t easy to attain it, and such a discovery costs dearly. After all, I acquire a great treasure and finally discover the shattering and how to correct it.
[59326]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
How Can You Be Treated If You Don’t Feel That You Are Sick?
Let The Light Do Its Job
Descent? Baloney!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam: “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”: Because of that we are compelled to begin with Lo Lishma (for oneself). Rambam says, “our sages said: ‘One should always study the Torah, and even Lo Lishma, because from Lo Lishma one comes to the altruistic intention of Lishma.

This means that first I have to bestow upon the friends, the others, and the Creator as much as I can, thinking that thanks to this I will feel good. I don’t have the right intentions yet, but still I already perform actions of bestowal. We are used to doing favors for each other in this world as well, hoping to benefit from it. A person doesn’t help others unless he sees a personal benefit in it.

In the meantime, my fuel doesn’t come from the Light that Reforms, but from my own benefit. I receive an egoistic pay for my bestowal, and it is clear to me. But thanks to these actions I awaken the reforming Light, and it changes my reward.

The Light makes “a miracle,” something unfamiliar to me. It enables me to bestow without any reward. I am filled, but only by bestowal. This is a “one-way movement.” At the moment we can’t imagine such a filling, but when the Light will change us, we will understand what it is.

So in the meantime, I act with an egoistic intention of Lo Lishma, as if I want to reach the intention of Lishma. I bestow upon the friends, I learn in order to awaken the Light that will change me, but in the meantime, I find personal pleasure in it. Otherwise I couldn’t begin.

Later the Light that Reforms enables me to act without thinking about myself. Then I discover that I am totally outside myself, in others, or in the Creator, which is the same for me.

So the spiritual world, the altruistic intention, bestowal, is when I can act without any reward, without any personal benefit, consciously and unconsciously. Only the Light that influences us can enable us to do that, even if for now we perform egoistic actions—provided that our actions match the advice of Kabbalists perfectly.

When we study together, understand that we study about the corrected states and we want to find ourselves in them. By our great desire to know them, to connect with them, we awaken the Surrounding Lights upon ourselves.

Actually, Kabbalah books tell us how we are connected to one another, how we bestow upon each other, and turn into one corrected vessel. So if we yearn for this state, at least a little, then from there, like from a spring of water, the Light that Reforms comes and brings us closer to perfection.
[59445]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Until They Accumulate Knowledge And Gain Wisdom
Only The Light Elevates Me
What Can I Give To The Creator?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created beings”: But we still do not know what that refinement is. With regards to the aforementioned, we know that “a wild ass’s colt is born a man.” And we are completely immersed in the filth and lowness of self-reception and self-love, without any spark of love for one’s fellow person and bestowal. In that state, one is in the farthest point from the root.

When one grows and is educated through Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), defined only by the aim to bring contentment to one’s Maker and not at all for self-love….

A person is in the right environment, in the right atmosphere, near the group, the teacher, and the books when he is told what the essence of his desire is, how to fulfill it, in which direction, towards what situation, and what goal to go. Then a person grows and learns.

One comes to the degree of bestowal to one’s fellow person. One comes to that degree by the natural remedy in the study of Kabbalah with the altruistic intention….

Ultimately, we study the wisdom of Kabbalah with the right intention in order to reach mutual bestowal and thereby assemble one vessel, according to the principle of “one man with one heart.” Everything that is called “Torah and commandments” is only meant to build the corrected vessel. This is why: “Love thy neighbor as thyself is the great rule of the Torah.” This is because it is meant to make a general corrected vessel of us.

So why do we need unity? In order to bestow upon the Creator and to bring Him contentment. This means that we have to develop the right feelings between us, to develop the right attitude to what we call “the Creator” so that He will be very close and dear to us, so that we will really want to bring Him contentment and to feel pleasure in it. The group can convey this warm attitude to a person.

By that the creature develops in the degrees of the above sublimity until one loses any form of self-love and self-reception. In that state, one’s every attribute is either to bestow, or to receive in order to bestow. Our sages said about that, “The commandments were only given in order to purify people with.”

The actions I perform in order to correct my nature are called “commandments.” Their purpose is to help me tie myself, like with strings, in all my 620 attributes, to all those who are outside of me. Thanks to this I can become the one who bestows and connects everyone into one.

The actions that connect me with others are called “248 positive commandments” of Bina that can be everywhere. Then I use the desire of others and my desire in order to fill them, and these are already “365 negative commandments.”

We can say that the negative commandments belong to Galgalta ve Eynaim. Hillel said: “Do not do unto others that which is hated by you.” First I refuse to perform any actions because I don’t have the power to bestow yet. Then, I move on to the positive commandments that can be summarized by the principle of “love thy neighbor as thyself.” These are already the commandments of AHP, actions towards actual connection.

And then one cleaves to one’s root, as it says, “and to cleave onto Him.”
[59449]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
What Can I Give To The Creator?
We Start From A Distance
Until They Accumulate Knowledge And Gain Wisdom

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: Baal HaSulam says in the article “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings” that the main thing is to start and not to leave in the middle. What does that mean?

Answer: You can be off track in the corporeal world too if you consider customs as commandments. A person simply gets used to performing certain actions instead of revealing the internal commandments by himself, as the correction of his attributes.

When a person corrects himself, he is dealing with the Creator, and he wants to draw the Light, to become like Him, and to approach adhesion with Him. But if the commandments become “physical actions” that a person is used to, he doesn’t follow the spiritual path, but simply learns to perform certain rituals accepted in his environment.

We don’t say that this is wrong, but we do say that it doesn’t correct the soul. This is not that reason for which we exist in the world. It is only an external condition that may make the true internal correction easier. In the perfect state, internality and externality should support each other. Unfortunately, however, this doesn’t actually happen.

One shouldn’t stop along the spiritual path. When a person begins to correct himself, he discovers how stupid he is. This breaks his heart and he cannot continue. He discovers that he isn’t the hero who corrects himself and gains from it like he thought he was.

A similar plan can work in ordinary life because a person works egotistically on something external. Here, on the contrary, he has to use something external in order to work on his egotism. This work is completely opposite to, unusual for him. We are not used to the idea that we have to change in our root, our essence. Now it isn’t that I am working on something, but rather that something is working on me. Besides, I don’t have to wait passively, like a patient during a medical treatment, but rather must ask all the time: “Change me! Change me!”

How can we fulfill this? If I could feel and understand more, that would be different. But how can I demand something that I don’t even want? How can I ask for something that is contrary to my nature? “Let me love others, let me connect to them,” it is like asking for the worst troubles. Naturally I want to use the world in my favor, yet I have to ask the Creator to change the program in me: “Change my heart and mind, it doesn’t matter what I was before, just make me care for others.”

At the same time, a burst of altruistic feelings that a person may be able to hold on to for a moment after being disappointed by everything else isn’t enough here. No, one cry won’t help. You have to constantly support it and keep this new, paradoxical desire clean all the time.

This effort seems impossible. This is why it says: “A thousand enter a room, but only one exits to the Light.” All the others also do great work correcting themselves in some way, but the circumstances are different, and it isn’t their turn now.

So the problem is that the commandment to love others is contrary to our nature.
[59329]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
What Will Make Me Love Others As I Love Myself?
Descent? Baloney!
Let The Light Do Its Job

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - 2 Comments →

We all are very different and have different levels of desires, but everybody has their own individuality, a unique role, even though it may appear to be limited. There is no obligation to “reach the stars” or strive towards something lofty. No one is better or worse than others.

When we will reach an integral connection between us, each of us will receive complete knowledge and absolute awareness of the universe. Each of us will become “a free bird” connected with others. Yet no one will rule over us except for the general desire, goal, and plan.

In other words, we become connected with others and at the same time remain absolutely free. We sense a common thought like a bird in a flock. A bird doesn’t sense itself or others. It only feels the common thought: where to turn, how to fly, and what to do next. This commonality becomes its personal asset.

Being a part of a general system, we make decisions together with others, and then we implement our decisions and achieve results. The next decision happens simultaneously in everybody, together with its implementation and result.

In other words, we become one common body. Every person simultaneously manages others and himself. In other words, we reach the level of the upper force that governs humanity, and we are inside this humanity.
[59511]
From a TV Program “The Integral World” 10/16/2011

Related Material:
In Unison With The Universal Mind
Man The Creator
In A Single Field Of Desires

Filed under: Collective Soul, Inner Work, Mutual Guarantee Movement - No Comments →