Being on this side of the Machsom (barrier), we don’t see the reasons for our actions and we think that we are independent. However, the result actually is predetermined and it summons the actions that will lead to it.

Question: But it says that even if the reward is guaranteed, we still have to do our work. So is this our independence, our free will?

Answer: I wish we would come to that and see that the whole world of Ein Sof (Infinity) is spread before us. No matter what you do, the Creator gives you everything that is good, but like a guest sitting before the host, you are prepared to receive from Him only through “restriction” and a Masach (screen).

Question: And each time a person has to decide: “Am I now going to do what should be done?”

Answer: Of course. Then you discover bestowal on the part of the Creator.

He wants to teach you to receive in order to bestow. On the part of the Creator there are no limitations, but He does that in order to bring you to His level where you will acquire the understanding and the recognition and not just the filling that is only the means. If you receive more or less, it is only the means, while the goal is to reach adhesion.

Adhesion is not the filling, but the pleasure from being similar to the Creator. It is above the game of the “Lights and the vessels” and this is the fulfillment of the “point in the heart,” it is the utmost pleasure.

On the one hand, we say that the goal of our development is the adhesion. On the other hand, we say that the goal of creation is pleasure and delight. So it turns out that adhesion equals pleasure.

Actually, it is always about levels of pleasure, since the desire, the vessel, doesn’t feel anything but that. The pleasure is behind every detail of my perception. For example, I differentiate colors to the degree that they bring me pleasure.

In every situation we measure the pleasures and usually connect according to their forms because we have a similar form. Upward and downward, strength and weakness, heat and cold, we check everything according to this principle, and it all stems from the impression of the desire from the filling or from lack of filling.

Our desire is divided into many discernments and shades that are determined by our five senses according to parallel ranges and levels. One way or another, there is nothing but the desire. Everything is measured by my feeling, even the most neutral things. I don’t feel and don’t identify anything that doesn’t touch my feeling. Every discernment I make receives an “emotional sign” which I measure. Behind all the words and the names there are the emotions, the state my desire is in. This is what our language is based on.

Question: I know the pleasures that fill me. I know what I yearn for. But what does it mean “to resemble the Creator?” What kind of filling is that? The feeling of belonging to something great?

Answer: If you take the internality of your heart, something that is very deep and personal,   and try to connect this hidden spark to the center of the group, you will fulfill your “point in the heart.”

Question: And this means to resemble the Creator?

Answer: Yes. because the center of the group is the depiction of the Creator. This is the picture that is depicted in your vessels. You don’t know what Light is by itself. For you the Light is a phenomenon that you discover in the vessel. When our vessels are connected, when each one annuls himself and wants to reach the connection of all the points into one, this is the depiction of the Creator. This means that we are adhered to Him.

Thus, if I am adhered to the group, I am adhered to the Creator. There, inside among the friends are all the discernments of His portrait.
[78128]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Humanity has been developing for ages, but in which direction? If we look at nature, we see that nature tends toward balance. Heat and cold, pressure and vacuum, balance each other.

All natural phenomena tend toward the balance of forces and mutual inclusion, as this is the most constant and stable state that is pressure-free. Eventually, everything will balance. By that, we can understand what Kabbalists tell us about our situation and about the fact that we must reach a state of balance with the Creator, with general nature, since the Creator and nature are the same thing.

What does it mean to reach a state of balance with Him? The Creator is the attribute of bestowal and love, and we should reach the same thing whether we like it or not. The Creator constantly bestows upon us, and from inside, operates the “engine” of our growing ego so that we constantly feel that we are under growing pressure, in a state that is increasingly unbalanced with the Creator.

This obliges us to do something. Until now and throughout our history, meaning our development, we have been trying to balance the pressure with the help of different technologies, social structures, habits, and means to protect ourselves from the heat and the cold, from pressure and other such changes.

Nature is constant, while we are constantly developing from the inside by a chain of Reshimot (reminiscences) that constantly change. Our resistance toward nature constantly grows.

All the changes take place inside us. Even if we see an external world that changes, such as geological and historical periods, generations, or whatever, it all takes place inside us.

We radiate this reality outward, although there is actually nothing on the outside. A person is a closed “box,” and the picture of the world is depicted inside it. However, he feels this picture as though it were on the outside.

Similarly, our eyes turn this picture upside down. The eye catches the entire world in an opposite way, then the brain converts it again. If we were to put on special glasses that do the same thing, after a while, the brain will get used to it and convert the picture in the right direction. This illustrates the fact that all changes take place inside me, not on the outside.

Therefore we say that, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him,” the one constant force that operates and influences me. He has prepared all the Reshimot (informational genes) inside me, and everything that I discover in my life, in my world, in my reality, is the result of the Reshimot. They are responsible for everything I can see, hear, taste and feel.

I constantly must try to remember that, if something needs to be changed, it is me. The Kabbalistic method isn’t meant for the correction of the world, but, with its help, a person corrects himself and his perception. So, despite common knowledge, if a person wants to enter the spiritual picture, he must refocus his vision.

Stereograms are based on the same principle. In order to see them, a person must refocus his vision. How can we change the focus in order to discern the new layer of reality? It is very simple. We must accept the world as a reality that is managed by one force and that all the changes are taking place through my Reshimot.

I constantly try to perceive and understand the situation, to remember that I always am facing the one force inside me and that the Reshimot that are constantly changing inside me are opposite to that force. So, I must reach the balance we spoke about every moment in my life.

The main law of nature is that, despite everything that is evoked inside me, I build myself so that I can be as similar to the Creator as possible, and not to differ from Him in my attributes. This is the main thing.

By attaining the current level, I rise to the next level. Thus, I balance myself with the Creator in every parameter, in all 125 degrees, by becoming totally equal and similar to Him, and achieving total balance.

On the whole, it is a simple schema. The world is constant, but he changes inside me, colors it anew each time, and I must be balanced with the force that gives and stabilizes the current picture for me.
[77665]
From the One Convention in New Jersey 5/12/12, Lesson 3

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Why did the Creator create everything so strangely? He built a palace, invited all His beloved guests, and then placed guards and policemen around the palace who are testing and checking the guests, not letting them pass and causing them pain and suffering. Didn’t the Creator know in advance who would be loyal to Him, who loves Him and who doesn’t? Why does the Creator reject us all? Is it so that only those who can overcome all the obstacles will pass, in order to prove their loyalty and readiness?

The point is that it is in this struggle that our desire is formed; a vessel for receiving the filling in the King’s palace is built and stabilized. Otherwise, how would we be able to build this vessel? After all, it wasn’t given to us readymade from Above. If we were not allowed to pass without a reason, would that be justified? It is as if I yearn for the Creator with all my heart, and here some guard throws me down the mountain.

The point is that I am totally opposite to the attributes required to reach the top of the mountain. I am not the person I should be to become a guest at the King’s palace. It is only thanks to the guards that I constantly change by becoming more and more adapted.

These forces, of course, are depicted in my ego as vicious, cruel guards who don’t let me pass. The Creator is the cruelest of them all because He is the one who posted all these guards and policemen. He created my evil inclination and all the problems and suffering that relate to it. It is as if he gave birth to a poor, sick child and instead of feeling sorry for him, He even beats him, as if the child is guilty of something.

Apparently, all our complaints are justified, but the point is that the only way to build the right vessel is with the help of the right attributes that we receive, which we don’t have from the start. So the right approach is to divide myself into two. From one perspective you see what there is in your egoistic desire. From a second perspective, you see what there is in your desire to bestow, in your yearning to resemble the Creator, which means according to the ascent up the mountain, on top of which there is the King’s palace.

Following these two perspectives is called the “middle line.” With regard to your desire to receive this is the most terrible way in which there is no justice but actually only the opposite! You will not be able to justify the desire to bestow or to support it so much. This is because we should exert ourselves on both sides, both from the side of the ego and from the side of the yearning for bestowal.

What’s important is that you are looking at these two points independently from a neutral zone. It is as if you rose to Keter and from there you are watching this machine, like the Creator. It doesn’t belong to you, but it is yours only if it helps you resemble Him. Thanks to it, you can become like Him, reach adhesion with Him, and look at everything else as a means to attain that.

Thus you can justify, understand, and go through all these trials “above reason”: both as the egoist and as the one that bestows. This is because this bestowal is also totally based on receiving.

You want to adhere to the Creator instead of being connected to your desire to receive. The desire to receive is merely a tool for you to attain the Creator. With the help of the Torah, (the Reforming Light), you have to turn this evil inclination into the good inclination with which you will adhere to the Creator.

In order to adhere to the Creator, you need the good inclination, but in order for this good inclination to be able to help you adhere to it, you should approach it from the side of the evil inclination by using the Torah. All of creation was created in order to reach adhesion with the Creator. From this point of adhesion, which we want to attain, we have to look at the whole process we are going through. Then you will cut yourself off the egoistic perspective and not look at yourself through your desire to receive, through your ego. You will constantly be above it and look at it from the side, as at a means for achieving a goal.

This is why it is so important to constantly raise the greatness of the goal, the Creator, the group, and the friends. Because this will help you relate to everything else as to tools.
[78011]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: How can we treat the group better and work together more efficiently in order to minimize our descents?

Answer: It is impossible to prevent descents. We have to feel them fully, but on condition that we constantly rise above them. This means that I have to feel the descent in the ascent! It means that I don’t feel the “minus” itself, but rather the “minus” to the extent that I have to rise above it to the “plus.”

It is similar to the technique in which we don’t measure the resistor itself, but only its resistance to the electrical current. This is how we measure it. We measure the phenomenon itself and not the essence of the object in which it takes place, because the phenomenon itself is unattainable.

Therefore, we always yearn to rise and in relation to it, we measure our descents. We constantly rise above them. I asked about that in the workshop during the convention in North America: “Where does the good inclination come from?” It doesn’t exist on its own, since the Creator didn’t create two different inclinations. When we correct the evil inclination, it turns into the good inclination. The two inclinations in a person indicate that he has succeeded in turning part of his evil inclination into the good inclination.
[77937]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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No matter how difficult spiritual attainment appears to be, in reality, there is nothing simpler. Imagine a system that is completely unified, wholesome, connected between all its parts, all minor details. Everything operates in absolute harmony and aspires towards a single goal—everything is aimed towards connection, making a common analysis, in other words, the Creator, which exists between us.

We reveal Him as a consequence of the harmony that arises between us through our constant efforts to connect between us harmoniously. As a result of finding harmony inside our desires, we reveal the Light that fulfills them.

The Creator is in us! We are in the world of Infinity, so let us reveal at least the very first, the easiest and smallest degree of this perfect state. To reveal it means to make yourself correspond to it, become equal in qualities, attain balance with the Light that fills it at least on the very first degree—Nefesh de-Nefesh de-Nefesh of the world of Assiya.

For this it is necessary to achieve equality of all parts of the common vessel. But how can it be achieved when equality cannot be measured? The only thing that can be measured is the difference between one and the other, Delta. But when things are identical, we cannot appraise them because we lose the scale for measuring them. How can two absolutely black colors be compared, or how can one compare white to white? We need a certain difference to appraise things.

However, we must verify our equality, because if I am not completely equal to another I cannot consider him my friend—I am not connected to him by a mutual open connection. And this is why we need two qualities: reception and bestowal. I must bestow to the group as someone big in relation to those who are small, giving them the greatness of the goal, the recognition of importance of the Creator and friends. And on the other hand, I must lower myself to the same extent in relation to them in order to receive influence and support from them, as I perceive them as the greatest people of the generation.

In other words, I achieve maximum bestowal and maximum lowering of myself. And these two maximums lead to my equality. I cannot build equality on its own, just by considering myself equal—this equality is not worth anything. Equality is only revealed as a consequence of two extreme states: the highest and the lowest.

And when everyone in the group works this way: in the maximum and the minimum, giving everything to the group and receiving strength, awakening, and inspiration from them, then it is as if they were becoming connected by a single open pipe. Before, we all used to connect to each other through pipes, through which the energy flowed, but now, they all merge together and we get one big lake, one common reservoir is being discovered.
[77934]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If the Creator is revealed between us and not in every person individually, how does each person feel this field of a single force?

Answer: The spiritual is bestowal. Bestowal is something that is revealed outside of every person rather than inside one. Inside of us we can only feel what we feel now: the picture that we call this world.

Therefore, if I wish to reveal something above my corporeal existence, something outside of what happens in my animal body, I need to build a new, different body. This body is called unification between people. Since they also are created from animal bodies, we build a new body between us, which arises between us, and feel our out-of-body reality there. That reality is called the spiritual world or higher reality, since it contains all the forces and qualities, the program of creation, and its goal. Everything is situated there, between us. That field, the upper force, controls us. It’s called Light, Creator, Elokim, and many other names.

Thus we have no choice but to build unity between us. By striving toward this unity, even egoistically, we rouse a certain influence from it onto us and begin to sense it on the degree called Lo Lishma. Then it affects us more and more, and we begin to feel it on the first spiritual degree, and then with greater and greater intensity. The power of our unification determines the power of the Light that Reforms, the sensation of bestowal that is being revealed. However, all of this is revealed between us.

Such is our work. We just need to try to constantly imagine this state in a more authentic and real manner, and adjoin to it everything we know from science, psychology, and the relationships between us. And then you will see how true it is. Suddenly everything will unite.
[77445]
From a Lesson in New Jersey 5/10/12, Shamati

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The group exists only in order to reveal the Creator, the force that bestows and operates on us. By adhering to It, we rise above our corporeal existence and feel the eternal life flowing in their infinite flow. The bodies change from one generation to another, but we regulate the connection with the soul and exist in it unified forever.

We can attain that only by connection and unity. Although it isn’t in our power to unite, the upper Light, the Creator is the one who unites us, but with the help of the group we can discover the need, the necessity for that. We need a great desire, a great need for the Light to unite us. So under what circumstances will we want that? It is in the state of separation.

This is why the negativity is revealed in the group: conflicts, separation, and alienation among the friends. We have to be ready, we have to know that all these things are revealed so that we will regulate the connection among us and unite above them.

Eventually the following picture is depicted: Below there is the ego (Ego) that separates the friends, and we connect above it by our mutual love (Amor). At the same time, no one disturbs the others. Even if I don’t get along with the friends, even if there are conflicts for different reasons, it all happens on the level of the human ego that separates us. Above it we build the connections of love.

The ego constantly grows, and we have to make greater efforts in order to be connected above it, above the jealousy ,hatred, passion, pride, and domination. I hug the friend internally despite everything that I feel against him.

The main thing is that the love doesn’t annul the ego, so that they will both grow stronger in their resistance. The ego is Malchut (M), and love is Keter (K). We don’t know in advance what tension, what gap will be between them (Δ), but eventually (℧) it has to make up the first ten whole Sefirot. Then I get a vessel in which I feel the spiritual world, the Creator, the Light.

This will happen only if Keter already grows inside me, which means the desire to love the friend above the great hatred is enough to create the first ten Sefirot.

All the problems in our relationships should be examined as urges that push us forward. Every “malfunction” indicates that we are worthy of intensifying the love and the connection among us. If a person cannot do that, if he doesn’t know about the tool that enables him to build the connection above the repulsion, his ego isn’t increased, and he lives an ordinary life. It is only from us that the growing ego constantly demands to be in mutual connections.

We did a great work in connecting during the convention. We felt what it means to be together in the warmth of mutual cooperation. Later we will feel how our desire grows weaker, how the tension diminishes, and how the indifference takes over. Thus our ego has grown, by asking a “logical question”: “What do you need all this for? We’ve celebrated enough…”

It is a perfectly natural feeling for a person, and he doesn’t feel that he is being played upon from above and that his ego is being increased intentionally by summoning rejection, indifference, and fatigue. It is all done on purpose, so that a person will overcome the obstacles. Try not to forget this, make a sign for yourself, try to see how the only force that exists Above is lying to you and confuses you so that you will begin to understand above your mood, “in which direction the wind is blowing,” and you will reach Him.

By rejecting us, this force wants us to want Him. It is like a woman who is courting a man, and seems to be keeping him away, rejecting him, only to ignite his desire. The wisdom of Kabbalah calls this a “dance”: We are getting closer and then getting further away, again and again, until the desire grows strong to be ten whole Sefirot. Then the Creator will be revealed to us and we will adhere to Him in a true connection.
[77203]
From the Brazil Convention 5/06/12, Lesson 5

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Question: The Creator gives us everything; He provides translators, study rooms, learning centers, etc. Why can’t He grant us correction?

Answer:  The Creator can give us everything, but He cannot make creation attain Him and become similar to Him.

What does that mean that the Creator grants us assemblies and provides us with land? Why did He create our congresses and countries we live in? What do we need them for? We could have stayed in the World of Infinity and that would be it. Why have we descended through five worlds to this realm? To sense the problems and experience the states we all go through? Who needs them? If you ask anybody in the world, you’ll see that no one wants them.

The Creator made only one thing—a point!—nothing more. Light entered the point and started to interact with it. The property of the Light is bestowal; the quality of the point is receiving. They constitute two opposing states: plus and minus, a microscopic power of the Light (bestowal) and a tiny force of receiving contrary to it. These two forces constantly continue to evolve.

The Creator didn’t do anything but this. The Creator is something intermediate, external, that is called Atzmuto (By Himself.) In order to attain the properties of Atzmuto and be able to perceive Him, we have to combine both properties together so that they become equal, similar to each other; the property of receiving should become identical to the property of bestowal. In other words, the property of receiving should learn to bestow the way the giving power does.

When we become equal to the property of bestowal (the Light) we start balancing between these two forces, thus experiencing the force called Atzmuto, which created both Light and desire. The Light originates directly from Atzmuto and is in fact His property called “something out of something,” whereas egoistic desire represents “something out of nothing.” Still, both of them stem from the Creator.

Therefore, as soon as we achieve similarity between desire and Light by making them parallel to each other, we start sensing a third force.

In Kabbalah, this notion is expressed by the idea of three lines. The left line stands for the power of desire (egoism); the right line signifies the power of the Light (bestowal), whereas the middle line is the third force that emerges out of comparison between the first two.

When we receive a part that belongs to desire and at the same time get another part from the Light, we compare them within ourselves in a way that they become balanced and equal; that’s how we reveal the Creator by utilizing the middle line.

We are talking about physical laws here; there is nothing beyond them. It is the same way in any science; we use the method of comparison in order to find a third parameter, the initial value. How else we can define it?

In order to be known, we need to demonstrate at least two of our opposing properties so that by comparing them another person can recognize and understand who we are. Only by contrasting various qualities is it possible to comprehend, measure, and weigh something.

This is the reason why the Creator gave us the possibility of existing between a “plus and a minus.” By receiving from Him and comparing what we have received, we attain Him. This applies to all spheres of our life. In technology, we determine what the source of energy is by knowing who the consumer is. Without egoism or the Light that flows through our ego, we cannot realize or sense who we deal with.

After the Creator generated a black point that is opposite to the Light, two qualities (plus and minus) continue to evolve on their own. There is nothing else going on. The act of creation stopped at that point; furthermore, we see that advancement happens by itself and originates from the two opposites. There is no interference on His behalf any more from Atzmuto (He, Himself.)

Our nature constantly evolves. That means that we can pronounce: “The Creator doesn’t exist!” We see that everything around us complies with certain norms; life is defined by rigid laws that exist universally.

However, if we strive to find Him (achieve the upper level) we have to start equating. How?—Only by positioning ourselves between “a plus” and “a minus.” How do we place ourselves in such a condition?—Only if we associate our “minus” with our ego and manage to link the “plus” with the group.

Under “our ego” we do not mean the desire to party, drink, eat, entertain, or have lots of leisure time. No. We mean our resistance to becoming connected with our fellow group members. This is the only factor that makes a difference. If we continue trying to unite with our friends beyond our ego, we will eventually get such a dipole, such strength of magnetic field that we’ll be able to reveal the Creator within it. At this level of merging with the group, the property of Atzmuto emerges.

I am talking about elementary physical conditions and laws. We cannot ignore them. The problem is that we have to be situated inside this scheme. We’ll try!
[74143]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/23/12, Lesson 1

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In fact, the whole Torah talks about intentions as well as the direction people should orient their desires to, working, shaping and organizing them in such a way that they gradually achieve a higher level of similarity with the Light. The Light doesn’t descend to us in its original simple and abstract form; it’s already “pre-shaped.” After the Light enters desire, it transforms it in accordance with Its own qualities so that they start matching each other.

In our world, we see how water easily enters the vessel and takes its form. However, in spirituality it’s different: Merging doesn’t happen until the shape of the filler and the vessels completely coincide. This state is called “merging” or “full similarity of properties” that should be adequate to conditions which are different at each particular level of advancement. At a higher level, a stronger similarity of properties is expected; each subsequent step requires a much higher degree of matching until we achieve a phase when the vessel acquires the shape of the Light and they finally unite. This is the reason we constantly search for the correct form that will allow us to correspond to the Light’s shape.

The Light is always kind and makes good. It’s always the same; it permanently stays in absolute calmness, as it is said: “I, HaVaYaH, do not change Myself.” It means that His intention is always the same. All changes happen within us, and that’s why we have to constantly search for a form that we should acquire in order to be “appropriate” for the Light, the Creator.

Similarly, when people fall in love and try to gain reciprocal feelings, they think about how they should look, what to talk about, and how to behave so that it’s right and acceptable to the other party. When it comes to the Light, we should act likewise.

The Light brings forth certain conditions that are called “spiritual steps.” Each of them is associated with a specific type of Light that is “dressed” in a particular shape and stays within an adequate vessel. Our task is to bring our “garments” to similarity with Him. Then, the contact between the Light, Its “clothing” at a higher level, and desire (altruistic clothing of the Light at a lower step) will occur. Only under such circumstances will they unite.

The entire Torah is dedicated to this process; there is nothing except it. At each level, from the worst and the lowest up to the loftiest and highest, everything is defined only by similarity between the vessel and the Light. Correspondence of the vessel and the Light is called “intention.” It’s about what the vessel is oriented towards and what it strives to achieve. There is nothing else in this realm.

It only seems that there are material objects around us in this world that confuse us and hide the real essence of our activities from us. Whatever we deal with in this world, we still interact with levels of our adequacy to the Light.

The language of Kabbalah talks about this openly and clearly; it explains the kind of inner changes we have to achieve in order to reveal the general Light. Our duty while learning Kabbalah is to “try on” everything we learn and see if the “dress” fits us and at this point figure out what our unity should look like.
[74967]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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We have to understand that there are only two states in our life, in our reality: a state of darkness, a shade, or a state of Light, connection, the revelation of the good and the benevolent. There is nothing in between. If by hearing about it a person constantly tries to clarify the states he goes through, whether it is a shade or the revelation of the Creator, he will advance by the middle line.

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 8: “What is the Difference Between the Shade of Kedusha and the Shade of Sitra Achra“: “Instead, all the changes are in the receivers. We must observe two discernments in this shade…”

The first is when a person can still unite with the friends, by overcoming the thoughts about separation and the “blurring” of the senses. He can still overcome the darkness and the concealment; he still understands that he has lost the goal, the way to the Creator.

But on the whole, no one conducts actual self-criticism, “Why do I feel this way? Where is this feeling coming from?” I am not my own psychologist, I simply feel good or bad, like a child. I don’t calculate who sends me these thoughts and these feelings. I “stew” in them, and sink into my body, like a small child.

Yet a person must know and examine himself: “What has summoned my feelings and my thoughts? How can I ascend above myself, above the current state? How can I get out of this swamp by pulling myself by my hair?” A person always looks at himself from the side, “Yes, I am deep in my egoistic desire. Yes, it controls me. True, it doesn’t allow me to connect, it doesn’t let me get up for the lesson, it forces me to disconnect, it makes the daily life with all its dealings seem more important. But I see that I am in this state and that it is opposite from the goal.”

How can I understand and recognize this? When I am still connected to something external, to the group. Here comes the moment of truth, I can check whether I was really connected to the group or not. If I wasn’t connected, I only feel myself: I feel bad, I don’t want anything, etc. Furthermore, I don’t even try to account for this and simply flow along without any special thoughts or desires.

But if I were connected to the group, if I had an alliance with the friends, according to which they have to help me even if I fall and turn in anther direction, the inner connections is kept, I would care about how they see me, and I wouldn’t totally forget about my commitment. They would support me and I would be able to see myself from the side and to clarify my feelings.

Thus I will be divided into two: my own self and my attitude towards the group. Only then, by holding on to the connection with the friends, will I be able to clarify and check myself and by that to start the ascent that follows the descent. Otherwise, I have no chance; I simply fall and leave. So a person can overcome the first type of shade, by justifying the current state and understanding that it was sent to him by the Creator. Then he can call the Creator for help.

Why do I turn to Him? Not in order to feel better, because then I would be asking to annul my evil inclination, which He has created, by adding the Torah as a spice for it. So I should ask for the spice, so that the power of love and bestowal, the power of connection, will come from Above and enable me to advance towards the other line.

“When one still has the ability to overcome the darkness and the concealment that one feels, justify the Creator and pray to the Creator that the Creator will open his eyes to see that all the concealments that one feels come from the Creator.”

When a person is left helpless and sees no way out, when he curses the Creator, the friends and life, he is still looking at himself from the side and suddenly sees a chance for a breakthrough, he can demand that the Creator will save him. Why? Because he does not accept the state when the Creator’s providence seems bad, and he cannot justify Him. A person feels bad because he thinks badly of the good and the benevolent, by being opposite from Him. If life seems bad, it is a sign that I am opposite from the Creator.

We have to build a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light above all the hard situations. Even in the worst situations I must see the Creator as their source, as the Light that is full of all the infinite abundance, but that is broken inside me and turns into a bad feeling, into a shade, into darkness, since my attributes are opposite from the good and the benevolent, opposite from the attribute of bestowal and love.

Thus we advance each time we clarify things correctly. The main thing is to constantly discover this point, “What do I feel? Who is sending me this feeling? Why am I experiencing this feeling?” This is the whole principle of our work and this is what divides humanity into the 1% and the 99%.
[76939]
From the Lesson from Brazil 5/03/12, Shamati #8

Related Material:
Until The Shadow Clears Away
The Tuning Fork That Is Always With You
Stages Of Ascent Toward The Creator

Filed under: Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Suffering - No Comments →