Question: Is spiritual advancement possible without having a deep knowledge of psychology?

Answer: Basically the Kabbalists did not learn psychology, after all they began to teach it around 50 – 70 years ago. At the beginning of the last century psychology as a science didn’t even exist. And even today it is difficult to call it a science because it is impossible to learn and to investigate the human while we are found on the present beastly level of development. To be able to investigate and learn something, we need to be one level higher.

Therefore it is possible to perceive the human and his psychology, which is to say, the structure of his soul, only within the wisdom of Kabbalah. Psychology is the soul. Who can learn and investigate the soul? Everything that we learn are all kinds of bestial reactions: either instinctive or the result of the influence of the environment or the human society on each other.

Psychology as a science ended around 20 years ago. We stopped understanding each other and therefore nobody can seriously be involved with it. Psychologists talk about this themselves. Since the beginning of the nineties of the last century, no new discoveries have been made in it, not even dependency has been defined, the human has become unrecognizable, one person cannot know another person.

For this sake we need to rise to a new level. Through learning the wisdom of Kabbalah it is possible to understand human psychology, his soul, because everything is established there. How is it possible to understand a person if we don’t know how he is managed, from where, what for, for what need, for what purpose does he go. The goal is what establishes all of his responses.

We see the person only in his everyday worldly life when he only organizes himself to live the seventy years of his life. This is not psychology, rather a normal level of animal existence. Therefore, only by learning the wisdom of Kabbalah is it possible to learn psychology.
[110656]
From the Conventions in Krasnoyarsk 6/16/13, Lesson 5

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Question: We go through various stages. Earlier you talked about the need to study the Kabbalistic sources, and now you pay more attention to integral education…

Answer: I do not deny what I once said. I see in this the sequence of our movement towards the creation of the common Kli (vessel). There is no contradiction.

I come to the class in the morning and do not know what we will study, not the topic, nothing; it’s not important to me; in principle, we study the same thing. The same material is repeated all the time, although, for example, Rabash has a huge number of articles, many of which we haven’t opened or read. The Study of the Ten Sefirot contains whole volumes that we have never studied either, and so on.

Moreover, apart from the works of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, there are many interesting books on Kabbalah that we do not touch. We just have no time for this, and frankly, we do not need it. We have to be involved in attainment instead of studying all the Kabbalistic literature that was created before us. It’s impossible to learn all of it. There are dozens, even hundreds, of true Kabbalistic sources, but not all the Kabbalists could present material well, although they were great in the attainment of the upper world. However, presenting materials in an accessible manner requires other qualities. Even Moses talked about his difficulties because he could not express himself well.

This is why practically we study only the most necessary. And I rely on the students in this. They select the material and establish the external form of the lesson, but the inner content of the lesson is going according to a certain line. So, there is no deviation.
[109948]
From the 1^st Preparation to the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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Question: The wisdom of Kabbalah has used four languages throughout history: the language of the Bible, the language of Halacha (Jewish Law), the language of the Haggadah, and the language of Kabbalah. Can we say that the language of integral education is the fifth new language that we use in order to communicate with the world?

Answer: No. It’s more like the language of Kabbalah, adapted for “babies.”  It’s because we speak to people about love, connection, submission, about the collective force of bestowal that is revealed in the connection between us. This force is revealed from a higher level and dwells among us just like wisdom for the masses. We explain the psychology of integral education using today’s terminology behind which there is no other but the wisdom of Kabbalah: the Sefirot, Partzufim, the worlds, ascents and descents, mutual connection, Reshimot (reminiscences), etc.

Question: If in the past it used to be enough for me to study the wisdom of Kabbalah and to connect with the friends and the group, do I also have to study this style of Kabbalistic language today?

Answer: Yes. It is the uniqueness of integral education. Similarly, we explain to children and adults the same things in different ways. The connection with the world goes through a different level of communication and we have to learn it.

It’s the Light that Reforms that corrects everyone. It doesn’t come to the masses if we don’t participate in the process. If the world starts connecting independently, it will speed up the pace of advancing along the path of suffering.

For example, if Europe begins to strengthen the union that it needs so badly today, it will lead to Nazi regimes, and local communes that abuse others. But if we work on the unity of Europe, then it will take on a spiritual form, according to the rule of “love thy friend as thyself.” Therefore, we mustn’t give the world time to start the egoistic connection. Only if we initiate the process of connection among them will it lead to a positive result.

Question: How can we do that?

Answer: By using the media, through our groups, and mainly through the general network that connects all of us “below the surface.” Through it, we will influence people and they will begin to understand that we have the right method of correction and no one else.

In fact, accepting integral education is the criterion that a person is ready to be corrected. This is the fulfillment of the wisdom of Kabbalah, as it says in the articles “Matan Torah” (The Giving of the Torah) and “The Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee). So our role is to become teachers, a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” with regards to the nations of the world. This is actually the field where we perform our external actions—”a field blessed by the Creator.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/03/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Is physical contact important for a student who rarely meets the Kabbalist teacher and other friends?

Answer: The point is that studying by correspondence or virtually is a new thing. Usually studying by correspondence in a university is not considered a very serious thing.

When it comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah it is even a more acute question, since there must be some contact between the teacher and the student at least once in a lifetime. It allows them to connect initially and then to already act from a distance, by developing the feeling of the contact between them. But if there has never been any contact, it’s very complicated.

After all, witnesses are those who see and not those who hear; even in court or anywhere else people ask, “Have you seen or heard?” So a true witness is someone who has actually seen things.

Besides, during the meetings there is contact between me and the audience, while the people in the audience also connect amongst themselves trying to be one whole and it’s then that we can reveal the upper state. But when a person studies virtually and is somewhere all alone or with a few friends, it’s not enough.

So massive gatherings where I am also present should have a very strong impression which cannot actually be felt virtually. Therefore, I must go to conventions. There is no other way; that’s how it should be.

We mustn’t underestimate physical contact, since the coefficient of the benefit of what this action leads to is great. It’s for this reason that our world was created in a physical form, since it’s from this level that the spiritual contact begins, so let’s make the best of it and let’s all meet.
[109247]
From the Virtual Lesson 6/2/2013

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Rabash, “A Prayer of Many”: With that, we can interpret the words of the holy Zohar, which advises those people with an inner demand, who cannot accept the state they are in because they do not see any progress in the work of God, and believe what is written (Deuteronomy 30:20), “To love the Lord your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” They see that they lack love and Dvekut [adhesion/cleaving] and they do not feel the life in the Torah or know how to find counsel for their souls to come to feel in their organs that which the text tells us.

The advice is to ask for the whole collective. In other words, everything that one feels that he is lacking and asks fulfillment for, he should not say that he is an exception, meaning that he deserves more than what the collective has. Rather, “I dwell among my own people,” meaning I am asking for the entire collective because I wish to come to a state where I will have no care for myself whatsoever, but only for the Creator to have contentment. Therefore, it makes no difference to me if the Creator takes pleasure in me or can receive the pleasure from others.

In other words, he asks of the Creator to give us such an understanding, which is called, “entirely for the Creator.” It means that he will be certain that he is not deceiving himself that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, that perhaps he is really thinking only of his own self-love, meaning that he will feel the delight and pleasure. Therefore, he prays for the collective.

A person begins to search for the meaning of life above the ordinary, earthly interests: food, sex, family, money, fame, knowledge. He does not even wait until the final outcome of his earthly quest to become aware of its worthlessness, but believes the opinion of the environment under which influence he develops. And if society has already verified these values and become disenchanted in them, then a person does not need to check them; he immediately switches from these earthly goals to the next, higher goals.

So, he begins to question, “What’s the meaning of life? For what do we live? Is there any reason to continue living except for the animal fear of death? Will this life came to nothing, or might it be an opportunity to continue to exist for some eternal purpose?”

All these questions lead him to the wisdom of Kabbalah if he is lucky. Besides it, nothing can give him the answer, and if humanity keeps on developing and judging itself, then its condition will not be enviable. It will not find an answer anywhere else. This is why the use of drugs is on the rise. What can those millions who are unemployed do while at the same time they are wondering about the meaning of life? They are pushed on both sides, despairing because life leaves them no opportunities to enjoy it and because they refuse in advance to look for those opportunities that according to general opinion bring no contentment.

But the person in whom this true question about the meaning of life has been awakened, which is related to the spiritual quest that is beyond the usual householder’s interests in food, sex, family, money, fame, and knowledge, he must find the answer to this question. That is, he wants to look beyond this life into its root to understand where it comes from, who controls it, where it flows, and to what form of existence it is intended to lead us.

These people who are involved in finding the root of this life gather into a special “active” society. They not only develop due to their environment, but also develop it themselves. That is, they join the environment to do mutual work, becoming an incubator that accelerates a person’s development and points him in a certain direction. A human being seemingly does not want to rely on what nature allows him to harvest in a natural way (eggs, chicken, meat, grains, fruits, and vegetables) but creates favorable conditions artificially, meaning he builds an artificial environment. And then he can approximately know what produce he will get.

He can adjust the temperature in the incubator to get more eggs and the humidity in a greenhouse to get a larger harvest. In the same way, he can create a favorable environment in which to grow himself. Affecting the environment, he can regulate the direction of his development and its final goals. For many generations, we have taken the Kabbalists’ advice to speed up our development through a specific environment, without waiting until all of humanity comes to the same understanding albeit by the path of earthly suffering.

In this specific society there are principles, “Each shall help the other” and “God dwells among His people.” This means that it’s possible to establish a connection with the Creator only through connection with the environment that will direct us to the Creator. This society is built on the basis of equality and unity, mutual guarantee, as one man with one heart. And then within that unified heart, we will reveal the Creator.

That is why, all our work is to adjust ourselves correctly, like a musical instrument, so that it’s not out of tune but seeks the Creator truly. If we come together with this goal and there is the Reflected Light between us, meaning an altruistic attitude, mutual guarantee, concern for each other building to love, then inside it we reveal the force of the Creator to the extent of the strength of this connection. Thus, we go through 125 degrees from the very first, initial connection to complete unity with each other.

Thus, we adjust our vessel to the sensation of the Creator and begin to feel Him inside ourselves. The Direct Light is revealed in the Surrounding Light, giving us a sensation of life in the upper world: in the field of the force of bestowal instead of the force of reception. And the only thing that is required is to correct one’s vessel that will lead us to corrected relations.
[108813]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/13

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Rabbi Akiva depicts two kinds of people: the first are the “open store” type, which regard this world as an open store without a shopkeeper. He says about them, “The book is open and the hand writes.” Meaning, although they do not see that there is an account, all their actions are nonetheless written in the book, as explained above. This is done by the law of development imprinted in Creation against humanity’s will, where the deeds of the wicked themselves necessarily instigate the good deeds, as we have shown above.

The second type of people is called “those who want to borrow.” They take the shopkeeper into consideration, and when they take something from the store, they only take it as a loan. They promise to pay the shopkeeper the desired price, meaning to attain the goal by it. And he says about them, “All who wish to borrow may come and borrow.”

Question: How can a person check what type he is?

Answer: According to his intention, according to what he wants to get from the study.

First, if I am like the guest who wants to thank the host, I have to imagine the next state. I stand before the “store” or in front of the “table with the refreshments” which is actually the group. In other words, the “table” is the means by which I can receive the presents from the host and also give Him presents. The group is like the table that is set and prepared for me by the host, so that I will taste from what He has prepared for me and thus bestow upon Him. Therefore it says: “everything is prepared for the meal.”

Question: So what is the calculation that I make here?

Answer: There are two options:

• I approach the table without even asking who has set it and I begin to taste the refreshments and fill myself.
• I approach the table but first I ask who the host is and only then take something.

This is how people differ in their attitude towards the refreshments on the table, or even in their attitude towards the host. But still they take everything for themselves. There are those who enjoy the refreshments that the host has prepared for them. For them it isn’t just refreshments but refreshments that were served by the upper force, by the Creator: “How nice of Him to have prepared this whole world for us and also the next world, Heaven…” This is how people use all of creation.

For them the Creator is a source of pleasure that they can enjoy. They want the Creator to protect them and to benefit them. The creation was given to us by the Creator in order to help us resemble Him, yet people see it as a means to enjoy.

This brings up some difficult questions of course: “Why does the Creator send us such sufferings? Perhaps we are guilty of something? Or perhaps the troubles don’t come from Him? Could there be someone else? Perhaps it is just by chance?…”

But there are also other people, and if I belong to them I stand before the table and admit that “there is none else besides Him” and that everything is meant only so that I will try to resemble Him by using my own powers. Then I relate to everything in a perfect manner. I understand that everything depends on me alone and that the troubles are revealed because by that I see that I am not corrected. But if I correct myself everything will be fine.

Question: But how can I know that I have to pay for the merchandise in the “store?”

Answer: If I am already attracted to what is beyond the “store,” if I have the point in the heart, I come to a group, to friends, to a teacher, and the books that tell me everything. It’s because I have a point of truth in which I can understand that there are no coincidences. The starting point of honesty has been revealed in me and I cannot put up with a world that is so “dirty” and lowly. I cannot put up with it internally…

But there are many in whom the seed of honesty has been planted and they still put up with the daily routine as a result of their upbringing, their experience in life and different obligations, and as a result they sink into the swamp they are unable to come out of…. Others who take this world for granted feel that everything is just fine and they only need to find their place under the sun.

We are looking for people who have the point of honesty and who cannot put up with the way that the world is currently. Those who yearn for spirituality belong to this type. Although they lead their lives like everyone else, they are in a constant inner conflict, unable to accept what is going on.
[108394]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/13, “The Peace”

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If we want to understand The Book of Zohar, we have to imagine the relationships between us: how the intensity of the connection increases and decreases according to our actions and efforts. The network that ties us together is described in detail in TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot): Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut or the Partzufim of Atik, and Arich Anpin which is Keter, Abba and Ima, which is Hochma and Bina and ZON, which is Zeir Anpin and Malchut.

We are connected by this network, included in it. The clearer this network becomes, the higher we rise. The less clear it becomes, the lower we descend. This is how we operate.

So, all our work is to evoke the strongest connection possible with the ten Sefirot in which we exist. Then, each one will see himself as Malchut that operates all these ten Sefirot, until they all take on their final form, the form of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

So, TES and especially The Book of Zohar were written in order to evoke us to see that we are in Malchut of the upper system from which we want to evoke the whole system.

We are part of a network, and we must spur this network. Then, each one will be impressed and feel the other and thus, also will be able to examine and understand how to operate this whole system.
[108919]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13,, “The Book of Zohar, Introduction”

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Baal HaSulam, “The love of the Creator and the Love of the Created Beings“: The immediate phase after “love your friend as yourself” is adhesion. 

The commandment of the love of others brings us to the level of the love of the Creator. It is a safe path with all the opportunities, states, and means that we need. It is impossible to escape it by different excuses like saying that we didn’t know or that we couldn’t act since everyone has received what he needs.

The correction of “love thy friend as thyself” includes all the other corrections and is the most hateful one because it is opposite from our nature, yet we have no choice but to understand that it is our only basis. As long as we don’t discover the need for this correction, we cannot get on the path that leads to the goal.

Question: How can we bring contentment to the upper one by treating others well?

Answer: Essentially, it is the same thing. Imagine that all the created beings, all the people are the “Creator’s sons.” This is what it says in the sources. So if you do good to the son, you certainly bring the father contentment.

Once the Creator said to Jonah the prophet that He cannot just abandon the great city of Nineveh with 250,000  inhabitants despite their sins. The message is clear: “If you treat them with love and save them, you will bring Me contentment.”

The Creator has no vessel (Kli) to receive contentment from us, so the means for that is the entire reality that spreads between us, between each of us and the Creator. And in this reality other people come first.

So the dissemination of the method of correction and worrying about the whole world are the most precious actions that we were allowed to perform and we have to focus on them. Of course we first have to correct ourselves in order to know how to relate to the world.

The calculation is as follows: “I do everything in order to bring the Creator contentment. I express this desire by worrying about the world or more accurately, by worrying about people. The still, vegetative, and the animate levels of nature will also join their correction. In order to take care of people, I have to correct myself and so I have to start by correcting myself.”
[109010]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet reflect the attributes of the 22 spiritual Sefirot by their form, the way they are drawn, and their signs: nine in Bina, nine in Zeir Anpin and four in Malchut. Each letter stands for a certain Sefira and reflects the way it differs from the other letters, so while reading The Zohar, we can be impressed by the text as if we are in these spiritual Sefirot.

This is what our inclination should be while reading, since the letters are like musical notes for our inner strings, for the attributes of the Creator that enter the created being’s desire to receive and summon in him feelings and impressions. The desire begins to calibrate and tune itself, like a musical vessel, according to the spirit of The Zohar and that spirit touches the strings of your soul and plays on it, like on King David’s violin.

This is how we want to feel The Book of Zohar, so that the Light that comes from it will reach us, fill us, and vibrate our desires. These letters are an invitation to a meeting, to a mutual impression with the Creator. So let’s try it!
[108698]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, The Zohar

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Question: Yesterday, you spoke about Abraham who discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah by introspection. What is that?

Answer: All of reality is in a person. What is more, reality doesn’t actually exist, there is a picture of it that I develop inside me. It is felt in the vessels, in my desires, by a certain sensor, by inner frames of a photographic film that reflect the reactions to the upper Light that depict my lack of equivalence of form with it.

A “flashlight” of the simple white Light is directed at me, but I am made of 613 different desires, different attributes that form a colorful, three dimensional picture of the world filled with sounds, scents and things I can touch on the background of the white Light. In other words, I actually “draw” or design the world in which I live.

However, according to my perception of reality, everything depends on my attributes and not on anyone else. It turns out that, if I change, the world will change. This is what we can do by introspection when I understand that I can change the world by the changes I make in me.

So, how can I change? I cannot do that by myself. I only have an unpleasant feeling in the current reality, and I cannot pull myself up by the hair out of the swamp. After all, even the thoughts about a change are part of this swamp.

This is exactly where the force of the shattering helps me. In my fictitious reality, there are people around me who tell me, “You know, we also think about that.” I see that the other parts of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature are managed by one general mechanism, but my imagination draws people who have the exact same vector as I do, and this enables me to practice and to exercise. Now, I can see myself from the side. I can work with them just as I work with myself, like with an external reflection of myself.

When I work with them, I discover that this game is very creative. The relationship with the images of the friends helps me advance by acquiring a new perception, a new feeling. They don’t develop my old attributes and don’t add to the previous mind and previous feelings, but rather develop new qualitative attributes in me, attributes that I didn’t have before.

For example, a multi-dimensional perception or rising above the concept of time: Before, I could see the past, present, and the future, and now I stop feeling time. The external movements disappear and I perceive everything internally and connect it with the inner movements. I change, and as a result I feel changes on the background of the white Light.

If I work with the images of the friends that I see this way, I understand that it is true that they are depicted by my imagination, but the right attitude toward them allows me to acquire a special means for inner changes. Through the mutual efforts with these images, I attribute a certain independence to them—to the extent that I want to be independent. Eventually, when I play with them this way, I acquire the perception that takes me out of the current picture that is drawn on the screen of my consciousness to a new reality.
[108593]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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