Baal HaSulam, Shamati #53 “The Matter of Limitation”: And this is the meaning of, “any sorrow will be surplus,” meaning that sadness comes to a person because he wants luxuries. This is what it means that when Israel came to receive the Torah, Moses brought forth the people to the bottom of the mountain, as it is written, “and they stood at the nether part of the mount.”

(A mount [Hebrew: Har] means thoughts [Hebrew: Hirhurim]). Moses led them to the end of the thought and the understanding and the reason, the lowest degree there is. Only then, when they agreed to such a state, to walk in it without any wavering and motion, but to remain in that state as if they had the greatest Gadlut, and to be happy for it, this is the meaning of, “Serve the Lord with gladness.” This is so because during the Gadlut it is irrelevant to say that He gives them work to be in gladness, since during the Gadlut gladness comes by itself. Instead, the work of gladness is given to them for the time of Katnut, so that they will have joy although they feel Katnut. And this is a great work.

This is called the main part of the degree, which is a discernment of Katnut. This discernment must be permanent, and the Gadlut is only an addition. Also, one should yearn for the main part, not for the additions.

A person reduces his usual requirements, gradually descending to the “small state” (Katnut) in which he does not require anything for himself. And what is necessary for his existence, he considers even lower because he cares about these needs unwillingly, out of duty.

From this point he starts entering the spiritual world. An indication of this state is joy. First of all, one needs to reach the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the screen and the Reflected Light, the intention to bestow, and advance as far as possible forward. And then, everything that a person needs is not considered consumption. That is why the sign of this state is a constant joy because he does not need to worry about anything; he is bathed in the Light of the Creator, in the sea of bestowal.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/13

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Question: We only need to reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. So why do we need all the books and all the talk about self-annulment and about unity? We must simply demand the equivalence of form and that’s it.

Answer: Go ahead, demand it. But how? Kabbalists wrote books only so that we can advance. On the whole we study two types of books:

– There are books that bring us the Light that Reforms—which are mainly the writings of Baal HaSulam.

– The other books, the books of Rabash, teach us how to approach the writings of Baal HaSulam: in unity, with the group, with the right intention.

Without this guidance you would not attain anything. You need someone to guide you.

Question: Still, why didn’t Baal HaSulam write a book about how to reach equivalence of form with the Creator?

Answer: It is forbidden. I have to look for equivalence of form by myself; I have to feel my way around and find it. Then I will understand what it is and that it’s exactly what I need and exactly what I aspire to.

And I would also understand how to ask for the power to do it. The desires can’t come from the outside; I have to arrange them internally. In our world everything is the opposite: I open a physics, mathematics, or mechanics textbook and study it. I have the necessary basis for that. In the spiritual preparation there is no such basis, no such tools or desires. Even if Kabbalists wrote a book like that, I wouldn’t understand what they want from me. What does it mean to raise the NHY to HGT?

This means that first I need to extract new levels of perception from the books, new powers, and new inner responses, to develop my mind, and to expand my feelings. First I have to develop internally, and in order to do that, the book has to perform certain actions on me, to “sculpt” something of me, to knead my matter and to stretch it by direct and by opposite bestowal. It’s only then that I acquire enough gentleness and sensitivity so that in a second reading I will already understand what it’s about.

After several years a person doesn’t read “Shamati“ as he did in the beginning. But how can this be explained to a beginner? This means that it’s impossible to manage without guidance and training…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: Baal HaSulam says in the article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” that the soul is dressed in the body in this world. What does that mean?

Answer: A “body in this world” means the desire to receive for one’s self. It fills all the space here (see drawing), and there is also a point in the heart (•), the posterior of Nefesh of Kedusha. It is shattered, which means that it also wants to receive for itself, but it can be turned into the opposite state.

Question: Where is the desire with the point in the heart?

Answer: First you feel that the desire exists and begin to notice the fact that the desire has no corporeal place. This desire is the essence of the spiritual creation.

Today you see before you the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as people. All this is the imaginary world. Don’t look at it, put it aside, it isn’t the main thing.

Besides that, there is a desire to receive in which there is a spark. We have to take care of these sparks. Give the imaginary world the basic necessities and you are not obligated to do anything more than that since it’s all an illusion. You should provide everything for your main part.

This means that you have to isolate the point in the heart from everything that is in the desire to receive. We should differentiate it from within the desire and bring it out as much as we can, separate it from the desire to receive, and develop it. The desire itself should be restricted and annulled. Then there will be a connection that will help it and then several other steps…

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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We receive the force of bestowal from Above not knowing what it is since it belongs to the existence in another dimension. By ascents and descents we reach a state in which we begin to understand that we should ask to exist in another force, in the force of bestowal. I don’t want to depend on my mood, on whether I feel that something is pleasant or not, but rather I want to be above all that.

First the egoistic desire motivates me, but gradually, by the Light that Reforms, as a result of an increasingly greater influence of the upper force that changes me, I begin to want to rise because of what I feel. Each time when I feel the sweetness of my getting closer to the Creator, as a result of my work in order to bestow, of connection, in all manifestations of spiritual states, I “catch” myself and ask to be allowed to be in this state not because it’s sweet, pleasant, and comfortable, or warms me with the Creator’s greatness, the importance of the goal, the importance of my unique upper mission.

I would rather feel my lowliness, although the feeling of lowliness can also be felt in different ways and sometimes stems from great pride. But I feel such lowliness that enables me not to be bribed by pleasure, by fillings in the mind and heart; I would rather be driven by another force, which I don’t understand and only know that it’s the force of faith. It enables me to be independent of my own reason, which is called being above reason.

If I really demand to be above the fulfillment in my heart and mind, the result is something that transcends the limits of this world, some empty space. Then I pray and ask for faith, which means the force of bestowal that the Light should bring me in order to free me from the connection to myself, from the dependency on any most entrancing taste, from all of Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) that is full of pleasures.

I want to be above all that, in the force of bestowal, in order not to see and not to ask to see the Creator’s greatness, in order to not be dependent on any pleasures, fillings, and knowledge. I am above that and do not rely on anything. And the sign for this state is joy.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13

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The internal work begins when a person feels that in every situation and place, no matter what he finds himself in with his desires and his thoughts, there is an awakening from Above, and he has to add his response to this upper action. First he wants to differentiate himself from what he feels and to try to find out what it is exactly that the Creator sends him, why, and for what reason; what does He want to build in a person with that? He needs to clarify what is happening inside him in order to differentiate his natural response from the one that he has to develop inside above that natural one.

The response that a person builds above his nature is composed by his participation in the events and the other half, he is forced to raise to the Creator, knowing that he cannot do it by himself. But he is glad that he discovers the part in which he needs the Creator’s participation, feeling the Creator as a partner, as the eminent, and as his savior inside him!

In this case, a person sees a clear goal before him, understanding that he must reach connection. This means that the first awakening that comes from the Creator in a person’s mind and heart reaches the right implementation. The sign that it is implemented correctly is a person’s change of attitude to the opposite of what it was before, and the great joy he feels about it, which means a successful attempt to rise above himself.

And all of this progress is due to the upper force that now remains in a person. Every action that we make in every moment is fulfilled that way if it’s received correctly in a person.
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From the 1^st  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can I examine every action that I make more effectively in order to discover the reason for the awakening from Above that caused it?

Answer: Let me give you an example. Suppose the phone suddenly rings and an unfamiliar voice says, “Wait, I am coming to settle my account with you today,” and hangs up just like in horror movies. You don’t know who has just called and what it’s all about! You begin to look at everyone that you meet suspiciously and fearfully. You check and examine everything that happens.

This is exactly how we should look for the Creator. We need the concern, the anxiety, the fear, the insecurity, and the helplessness that force a person to remain sensitive and alert and to check everything that comes his way.

If the goal is very important to me, but I don’t see that I advance towards it, I worry about what is happening and have to find out what is standing in my way. What is the goal exactly and maybe I am not imagining it correctly. What are the means for attaining it?

Here I discover that my problem is that I simply have to turn my hatred into love. I have to check my state and my intention and to concede where I currently cannot concede. I have to pay attention to what I disrespect and consider as unimportant now and to try to feel it. Then I will regain consciousness and suddenly see the upper world. I don’t see it now only because I don’t want to see it!

It all depends on changing one’s principles according to which a person relates to reality. They determine what a person’s reality will be like.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Does Kabbalah have any proof for beginners? How can I be sure that I am on the right track?

Answer: You have no proof and no certainty. You can go if you want to.

This is the condition for entering the spiritual dimension. The alternative is suffering, which eventually will make you accept this condition.

If you are not able to nullify yourself and refuse payment, you will not enter spirituality. Haven’t you heard about this? You are looking for proof, incentives, this is understandable; things cannot be any other way. These objections are just, but there is no place for them. They only awaken in you so you would rise above them.

Even the support of your friends cannot be rewarding to you. It is because deep down in your soul you cannot stand them and would never unite with these people. So this is not about friendship and its benefits.

Simply today, you do not yet know what the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), the screen, and the Reflecting Light are. In reality you will never receive anything. Once you enter it, you will discover that you have always been there, but you only were able to perceive it the moment you became willing to reject everything. And you perceive it in the vessels of bestowal, rejecting for yourself, never for yourself, but only for others.

Question: Isn’t there anything to cheer us up?

Answer: I do not want to put glitter before your eyes. The group and our friends from all over the world that are connected to us must know the truth: Spirituality lies beyond human strength. When a person has a point in the heart, he understands that this is right. And even though sometimes it seems that an obstacle cannot be overcome, only this can be true and nothing else.

Thus you discover all the truth. Conversely, any appeal to the egoistic desire, any attachment to it, is not the spiritual path.

– But will I at least get something?

– Nothing!

– What do I get?

– You don’t!

– What about receiving spiritual attainment?

– Spiritual attainment is the antithesis to reception. You only reject, you do not want anything for yourself. Your entire enormous desire to receive, which you are not yet aware of, your entire egoism, you raise it from the “stomach” to the “head” and fully reject it. And thus you form the real “head,” the screen and the Reflecting Light. You do not take anything for yourself no matter what comes to you, you give everything to others. It is best when no one even knows what you did because this could also serve as a “bribe.”

And then you begin to feel what it is like to be on the degree of the Creator…

Your point in the heart must agree with this. It is the truth and it has the same qualities. And whoever does not agree is free to go. These people are supporters, but they are not Kabbalists.

Question: This means that we are striving to attain something that is not real?

Answer: Exactly. For you, for your vessels, this is unrealistic; it is opposite for you. This is why it is written: “I saw an upside-down world.”

Question: And yet, what will we achieve? What will we attain in spirituality?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes in Letter #8 about it: “Everything that happens in the world has a worthy goal called ‘a drop of unity.’ When the dwellers of ‘corporeal homes’ experience all the horrors, through their absolute pride removed from them, a certain opening appears in the walls of their heart, which is not receptive at all according to the actual nature of creation. And they become worthy of the installation of this drop of unity in their heart.

And they will become like an impression from a seal, and they will see for themselves that, on the contrary, it is through these horrors that they come to attain the absolute, removed from alien pride. Unification with the Creator happens only there, and it is there where a drop of unity can reign over them.”
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/13, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We are required to exert ourselves in quantity and in quality until “many pennies add up to a big account.” It is only bit by bit that we can collect our efforts since efforts are the inner resistance, the overcoming and the clarification that are opposite to our desire.

Here both the quantity and the quality are taken into account since there may be a desire but it may not be clarified enough. It isn’t the outcome that is important, but rather the efforts a person makes, which are absorbed by the general system, and it is a cumulative process. This continues until it becomes possible to return them to a person and to fully present them.

A person cannot accumulate these efforts since if he accumulated and collected them, it would weaken his search. If he knew exactly in his mind and heart, if he knew and felt what efforts he has already made, he would lose his powers to advance and would become numb.

So there is this kind of forgetfulness, and the efforts accumulate unconsciously, disappearing within. But at some point we will get them back according to the law of, “He shall vomit what he has swallowed.” At the beginning all our efforts are swallowed, as if trickling though sand without a trace. But when their sum reaches a level that matches the next level of the upper Light, there is an equivalence between the deficiency that has accumulated to a certain quantitative and a qualitative measure and the Light, then the Light and the desire are revealed in each other in a person.

Every revelation is always sudden and comes as a surprise. This whole process is called a “unique quality“.It is because it is almost totally concealed from a person. The Creator’s thought operates in its depth on the created being in order to prepare him and to help him attain the form that matches the Light.

So, as much as a person remembers and feels and as much as he forgets, as many efforts as he has already made and as many as he still has to make—all is calculated according to quantity and quality and incorporated in the general system, in the system of connection among all the souls. A person has to become an active, efficient, and useful part with regard to the system.

Of course, this is only about his feelings and revelation here, because everything is concealed and revealed only with regard to a person, not that the system itself has any deficiencies. If a person reaches the level in which he can be an active efficient component consciously, then he is rewarded with revelation.

So we should understand that we mustn’t delve into and try to calculate what seems to us as obstacles, forgetfulness, weakness, and efforts that are lost and that leave no traces, forcing us to start anew each time. We must not make any calculations here since we don’t understand to what extent everything is measured and arranged accurately every step of the way. We only have to work on hastening time by constantly evoking ourselves as much as we can.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Question: How can it be that a person becomes an active part in the system if it says that the Light does everything?

Answer: The system already exists in perfection and splendor in a state called the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). All the shattering and the concealments, and all the restrictions and the conditions, are relevant only with regard to the created being in order to allow him to gradually attain the whole system.

So we have to start from the state that is most distant from this wholeness. A person actually goes through part of the process unconsciously, in many previous incarnations. We did not begin our correction consciously straight from the “Big Bang“, from the first particle of matter that was created by the spark of the Light billions of years ago.

And it wasn’t yesterday that we climbed down from the trees and turned from apes into human beings. It is a very long process that goes through many changes from one generation to another. Eventually, we have arrived at the life we are living now in which we have to complete this work and clarify things! The most important thing now is the recognition both in our mind and in our feelings.

So everything that happens in this world on the physical, corporeal level has to receive only what is necessary for its existence in order to provide the animal body with what it needs, but all our development has to be on the human level. This is how we should arrange our life and this is how we should focus our attention so as not to deal with the animal level more than it is necessary for its existence.

We should focus all our attention on the speaking level by looking for the human being in it. How can I separate it from the animal to take it out of this confusion and to deal specifically with it?

Here, everything depends on the society, of course. If a person is cut off from the environment, then there is no way that he can advance. It is because he has to create his human image, by cooperating with all of humanity or at least with the group he was brought to. If he perceives the group and the connection with it as absolutely essential, then by this connection he builds his human image.

The main thing is to hasten time. If the Creator has already brought a person to the good fate and told him, “Take it,” then from now on everything depends on you, and all you have to do is to find out exactly what you have to take and how to arrange everything.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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