Question: What kind of work should we do with regard to analysis and acceleration of time?

Answer: To become like the Light means to reach the degree of bestowal. At first it’s necessary to separate yourself from the still, vegetative, and animate levels, and to understand the human degree, the degree of Adam, the one “similar” (Domeh) to the Light, bestowal. It’s necessary to figure out how I gather pieces of bestowal or grow them within through the correction of my relationship with my environment and the Creator.

This work is done every time above my desire, which naturally is inside me on the animate level. And I build the human degree, the form of bestowal, above it. The better the person begins to distinguish between these two notions, the greater the difference he begins to feel between the animal form within him and the human form, which is above this animal. All our work takes place on the borderline between the first and the second form, with the purpose of increasing the human form within us.

It’s not easy to separate these two forms within us in such a way that we perceive them in a completely equal way, as an inseparable pair: a rider, riding on horseback. Only then will we attain the understanding of what an animal and a human are. This is the main work of a beginner who needs to figure out how much attention he can dedicate to his animal and how much he must dedicate to his human in order to separate them and put each one in its place, so the one would control the other.
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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 I annul myself correctly before the teacher? As it is written, “The left rejects, and the right adducts.” I must build my middle line from these two systems, but how exactly: receiving something in parts or everything as a whole?

Answer: The middle line is the adaptation to the upper. It symbolizes that I receive everything that comes from my teacher as much as I can. In general, a “teacher” is called a guide on the spiritual path. I must receive what I hear from him spiritually, instead of rationally. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be a teacher.

On his part, he wants to prepare you with his explanations about leading an independent life.

However, in order to receive from him all the discernments, all the preparations, all the instructions, and the guidance, I must annul myself before his teaching, before his path, before all that relates to the system. In order to realize the system, I need a group. The “head”—which means the idea, the teacher’s plan—resides in the group, and I enter it and am “swallowed” in it. Then, when I am in the group, we all advance according to the teacher’s guidance as he leads us and “pulls” us, the group and me in it, after him.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: We say that I see myself in the friend, but which part of him exactly is my reflection?

Answer: If I consider a person my friend, then he really does become my mirror. If I see something negative in him regarding my spiritual advancement, then I should understand that this negativity is within me and that my perception is simply distorted.

As for other people, it is a different story. It is clear that I should remember that they represent the Creator, but, in that case, they don’t represent the external reality as a replica of my internal attributes. We need a serious study in order to treat people on the outside who are not members of the group correctly. To the extent that the first part of the system is revealed as GE, we will learn to treat the AHP correctly.

So, it is only in a friend that I should see my reflection. It is as if the Creator puts a mirror before me at a certain angle and each time shows me a certain part and says that I should look at myself, at my flaws. He reflects my attributes outwardly, dresses them in different figures, and presents them to me.

At the same time, when I look at the friend, I don’t attribute everything to me, but only what belongs to the spiritual path. However, this already depends on the level of connection. If I love someone, I don’t see any flaws in him; I simply love him. People say that it is a habit, but it isn’t. On the corporeal level, my desire to receive doesn’t want to suffer and so it guards itself. I get used to the flaws of others, and it is as if I don’t pay attention to them so as not to suffer all the time. However, in spirituality, as it is written, “Love covers all transgressions.” Love covers all the sins, and it isn’t a habit, but the work of correction.

On the current level, it happens that I envy a friend since I see in him something better, attributes that I would like to have myself. It is painful. Do I thank the Creator for this pain? After all, He shows me that I am inferior to the others. I begin to regret and search, and this brings me to the question: Why don’t I actually love the friend if I see that he is better than me?

Thus, in the example the Creator presents to me, He shows me an opportunity for advancement. Otherwise, I would have remained “dead” on the level of the still nature, but now, thanks to the envy, lust, ambition, and even hatred, I have “fuel,” a “fuse,” and I cannot sit still.

Sure, I can calm myself and say, “Nonsense, it only seems this way.” But, I can do the opposite, hold onto the feeling, and plan how to exit the negative attributes that were revealed, to make a real plan of how to rise.

Question: But still, do I have to attribute all of the friend’s negative qualities to myself automatically?

Answer: You are right; the animal attributes are irrelevant. If, for example, he is too hasty or a bit lazy, it is nature that has given him these attributes. Someone may be slow and another may be too loud; everyone has a collection of innate, corporeal attributes.

We are speaking about an inclination to change, about the fire that burns in a person. This is what you need: reasons to feel envy. Do you envy his innate attributes or his sensitivity and his yearning for the goal?

Question: Suppose I see that the friend is sleeping during the lesson, and I understand that it is actually I who is sleeping. How can I make use of that? After all, I don’t find any flaw in myself.

Answer: It is very simple. If you are not sleeping, then he isn’t sleeping either. Include him within you, and try to wake up his image inside you. Even if he continues to sleep during the lesson, he will receive everything through you.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“

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Question: Is it possible to hasten the awakening of the point in the heart in a person?

Answer: Yes, it is possible in two ways, but first I want to explain something: People in whom the point in the heart has not awakened yet belong to the level of the “nations of the world” or AHP. Those in whom the sparks have already awakened are called “Israel“, which means that they yearn straight to the Creator (Yashar-El). They are attracted upward and have to take care of whoever is below, so the “points in the heart” can be awoken by two actions only:

1. An external action—by disseminating our materials, integral education, books, films, etc.

2. An internal action—by the connection among us, which influences everyone else even if they are not aware of it through the system in which we are all connected.

Question: Can this drawing illustrate the external and the internal work in the group?

Answer: Yes, it can. The upper part (in red) is the work of the points in the heart of the group, while in the lower part (in blue) are all the desires to receive of the group. All this belongs to the same “body” of the group.

Question: This means that on the one hand, I work with the friend and see him as my reflection and correct his attributes in me, and on the other hand, I tell him frankly: “Hey! You are doing something wrong…”

Answer: No, this isn’t the spiritual work. I don’t need to correct the friend’s attributes in me, since if he is a friend, it means that the Creator is behind him. So I look up to him and to me he seems perfect, corrected. If I see that there is something wrong in him I immediately attribute it to myself.

So I don’t have any complaints about the friend. On the contrary, I have only complaints about myself.

On the whole, I have to constantly show the friends a high spirit, confidence and joy in the spiritual path, and also to worry about the group internally so that through me the friends will receive the Light that Reforms.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“

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Question: You say that by reading The Book of Zohar we have to discover inside us the same spiritual attributes it speaks about. But it’s hard for me to think about the connection with the friends at the same time.

Answer: For the time being we can’t identify these spiritual attributes inside us, they are concealed too deeply. You sometimes get so angry at someone you love, for example at your wife, that you begin to hate her. If at that moment someone says to you, “but you love her,” you will get mad and say: “I love her?! I simply hate her!” Love is concealed and hate is revealed. Sometimes it’s the other way around, a few gentle words evoke the love in you, and you love her and everything is just great. So where is the hate? It’s as if it doesn’t exist.

Similarly, inside us there are all the spiritual discernments that The Book of Zohar speaks about, Jacob, the Torah, HBD, HGT, the middle line. But they are all concealed internally, and we don’t identify them at the moment.

The main thing is the intention. I also asked Rabash a similar question when we studied such “technical details” like Kruma de Avira or Mochin de Avira, the 13 corrections of Dikna, etc. in TES. It didn’t concern me at all, I couldn’t relate to them. So I asked him whether I could think about myself during that time: Who I am, what I am, for what reason and why? Whether I should suppress all the internal clarifications that come up and think only about what is in the book. Rabash said: “No.” If you care about the right intention now and about how to approach bestowal, then think about it.

Later you will see that everything you think about the states that you go through, about the group, and about the Creator and everything that is written in the book is actually about that, you will suddenly feel: “Wow, it’s about me! How did Baal HaSulam and the authors of The Zohar know that I would be thinking precisely about what is written in this text?!” That’s what will happen.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/13, The Zohar

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Rabash, “What Is a Ladder that is on the Ground and Its Head Reaches Heaven”: A person should know that the Creator hears his prayer. This means that we have to clearly acknowledge the fact that each of our requests or desires is incorporated in the general system, and all our feelings are a result of the general system. If we make an effort, then it naturally influences the whole system, since everything is connected. But this connection is concealed from us so we have to attain information about it and the feeling that all of reality is connected to one upper system that is called the “Creator” or “There is none else besides Him.”

This system receives all the signals that come from us: both our natural instinctive evolution and the additional influences of society that are above our natural development. Everything is included in the system, and it responds to this appeal: “the Creator hears a person’s prayer.”

And what he sees is that now he is in a worse state than when he didn’t pray to overcome the desire to receive, which is an answer from Above to his prayer. We cannot properly determine when in fact we really are asking from Above and when we receive a response. While it may seem to us that we are praying and asking, it’s not we who are praying and asking. We were simply given such a desire from Above, and we feel how it goes through us. This prayer is not on our account.

So a person shouldn’t say that the Creator doesn’t listen to his prayer. He should rather say that the answer came from Above, and is not what a person prepares, but what is prepared for him from Above, which is for his own good, and he should know that. It is clear from Above when to answer a person and what to give him: which thoughts or desires. He has no freewill here.

Which means that a person should know how far he is from bestowal, and that every part of his body is against it. And a person asks the Creator for something that there is not one part in his body that agrees to what he is asking of the Creator. So how can he ask for that? And then a person sees something new, which he didn’t know before he began to ask from the Creator, that he should be given the power to overcome his body, so that he would be able to act only in favor of the Creator and not for his own sake. A person sees that there is no point in these requests. …and the new recognition that a person attains is that he sees that the body doesn’t agree to pray for the annulment of the desire to receive for its own sake.

So the question is why a person sometimes does want to annul his desire to receive, which means that a person often sees that while he is asking the Creator to give him vessels of bestowal, his whole body rejects it and what he prays for is only lip service, which means empty words. In any case he sees that there are times when he can pray from the bottom of his heart. The answer is that this is already the answer to his prayer, which means that the Creator gives him the power to pray about that from the bottom of his heart. Therefore a person has to be hopeful that the Creator will bring him close to Him.

In the meantime we can’t know when we receive a desire to pray from Above and when we pray out of our own will, below. All this will be revealed later. This is done on purpose, in order to confuse a person and to let him feel disoriented in the egoistic desire, so that he will begin to ask for forces of bestowal, a desire to bestow. It’s only by the force of bestowal, the force against him, that a person can be critical of himself and see the truth.

But if a person has only one force, then it’s either an angel, when it’s only the force of bestowal, or an ordinary animal that belongs to the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and which have only the force of receiving. But it’s when a person is confused and has doubts, when he can’t find himself in these states of confusion, that he is simply torn apart, that he can find the connection between the two parts of creation: the Creator and the created being who is above his limited mind and feelings. He should rise above his request, above the actual prayer, and the answer for it, like Malchut that rises to Keter, which is called a true “prayer.” The Creator is the answer to the prayer, and then the two connect in the full adhesion of a person and the Creator.

And so a person has to be hopeful that the Creator will bring him close to Him. Since we are constantly nourished from Above, we only have to be aware of the bestowal that comes from Above and goes through us and then back up. We have to be grateful for that, to acknowledge the greatness of the goal, that “there is none else besides Him,” and that He is good and benevolent, and to yearn for connection in every situation. If we constantly try to stabilize this in the true form, and not as it seems to us in our concealment and exile, then it will be a true prayer.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/13

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The upper force controls and manages everything and below it there are “ministers,” forces that sustain all of reality. Reality is man, one soul, in which the Creator’s action, His thought, the active force exists.

This force is divided into many parts, into individual forces that operate on several levels and which seem to be opposite from one another on different levels, so the created being feels that this action is performed on him as if without any order. This is intentionally done so that we will be confused by the apparent disorder and will have an impression that is opposite from the truth, as if there is no Creator in reality, but only the created being’s force or some additional forces. We may think that the Creator exists, but His leadership is bad and has many flaws. Besides, the existing force seems to be aimed as if against the Creator and that everything doesn’t come from Him, in order to raise us above our corporeal reason.

But if a person really desires to see the King as the upper manager and to discover this above his own nature, then his perception is corrected and he discovers that everything is already ready for this correction. He fights in order to purify his vessels and to bring them to a state of to bestow in order to bestow by guarding the King, and at the same time corrects his vessels so that they will be to receive in order to bestow.

In the first war he acquires the force of faith, and in the second war he acquires the Light of Hochma, the understanding of the system, its plan, the reasons, and the goals by working with his vessels of receiving. Thus he learns how to understand and feel the upper Providence, by crowning the Creator as the one who rules above all the forces. It is because all these forces, both His ministers and those who seem to be His enemies, different criminals, murderers, and robbers, unite as a result of this war and as a person attributes them to one King.

He understands that the war is not against the forces that are hostile to him, but against himself, in order to discover the Creator in all these forces. This is the essence of all the wars.

Although we hear that “there is none else besides Him” and that He is good and benevolent, we have to go through all the levels in order to really feel that. We still have a long way to go in correcting ourselves through all the states that the Creator presents to us, by teaching us the art of understanding and the attainment of the system of His forces through them, so that we will be able to understand and to feel Him. To feel Him according to the rule of “from Your actions we shall know You.” Thus we gradually become more like Him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How do I make a covenant with the Creator if I don’t know Him?

Answer: The question is: Why is it only the groom who signs the wedding agreement (Ketubah) and not the bride? Is there a kind of one-sided commitment here? The same happens when a person signs an agreement with the group or with the Creator.

This means that my signature on this contract is enough since the agreement of the other side is certain. So, only the one who hesitates and is unsure has to sign, and thus, he is obligated to sign the commitment.

There is an upper force, and in order to reveal it, there must be a lower force. The force of the upper is bestowal and the force of the lower is receiving. The force of the lower must attain wholeness in its deficiency in order to connect to the upper force that is eternally whole.

Wholeness is attained in the lower force by the connection of 10 people, for example, then of 100, and then of 1000. We always add another zero.

Unless I connect with 10 people, I cannot be called a spiritual “unit,” and, unless I connect with 100 people, I cannot be called a second spiritual “unit,” which means to rise to the second spiritual level. The counter only counts the additional zeros, and this is considered a leap to the next level.

In order to be adapted to the whole upper force, I at least must attain the connection of the first 10. This means that I must connect to 10 people since according to our inner nature, we attain the first, minimal measure of bestowal, #1, by the connection of ten people as one heart and one mind. Now, I have the first force of bestowal.

If I can connect to 100 people in a similar way as one heart and one mind by totally annulling myself, I attain the second force of bestowal, the second spiritual level. Thusly, I must go through 125 levels.

In order to connect with them, I sign a mutual contract. We must be connected so that each one will forget about himself and connect with everyone as one whole. It is impossible to do this alone and we must help one another. We must provide everyone with the greatness of the goal, connection, warmth, and positive examples. In order to do that, we sign a contract, and this is called a covenant.

Each of us goes through states of “+” and “-,” and we need the minus in order to rise to the plus, to “straighten” ourselves. This is possible if, while I am in a state of “minus,” the society intensifies my intention. My minus grows and the plus also grows; they constantly increase. After a small plus, there is a big minus, and after a big plus there is a minus that is twice as large.

This is why I never can overcome the minus that I receive and it always knocks me to the ground. I may be totally thrown off track, and I may continue to work, but without any inspiration and thought. When I fall into such a state, into such a minus, the society has to intensify my intention.

It is a good thing that I have received such a minus since I need a greater minus; I must reach its full measure to fill my measure. The question is how to turn it into a plus. In order to do that, I need an intention! If my deficiency and the society’s intention connect, I can change the minus to the plus each time and, thus, constantly rise. This is called making a covenant.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/13, Writings of Rabash

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