Question: What is a name?

Answer: A name is what we call a certain phenomenon in the most appropriate way. There is the Light and a vessel, two factors that are revealed by each other, and their common appearance leads to the expression called “name.” We don’t know what the Light is; we don’t understand or feel it. We only feel the action of the vessel which is opposite to its nature: The vessel, the desire to receive is suddenly revealed in the form of a desire to bestow, and thus we see bestowal on top of receiving.

These two opposite forces create a certain form by connecting in a certain manner, which is called a name. The form itself is the name, although in our world, in my mind, in my computer, the name is already written in a different form according to my software, according to my codes. The form itself is actually the name of the state that is created by the mutual cooperation between the Light and the vessel.

The name is with regard to those who receive, which means that I have to adapt to a certain phenomenon in a certain way and then according to the form that is adapted to the phenomenon I call the phenomenon by name. I don’t know the name of the general phenomenon, but I can thus call part of it according to my vessel, according to my name. So when I say something about someone, it is not talking about me or him but about the extent of my attainment of it.

We should take this into account. We never learn the actual phenomenon itself but only with regard to the person who attains it. So when I attain something, I don’t say that it is something specific but that I attain the phenomenon because my attainment is always according to my vessels, according to the equivalence of form with some part of the general phenomenon that isn’t familiar to me.

We exist in a universe, but now we begin to attain that there are infinite other universes. We, however, attain only part of it and we call it a universe. So the name is never the actual phenomenon but only the part which I attain.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How do you justify the Creator? What is included in this process?

Answer: Justifying the Creator means calibrating yourself correctly in the direction of the real perception of reality. Although we don’t see or feel that way, we do want to feel it.

Let’s suppose that I have a crooked ruler and I constantly measure everything in this crooked manner. Now I want to straighten this ruler by force so that all my measurements and my calculations would be according to a straight ruler.

The straight ruler is the condition that the Creator is good and benevolent and that everything that I see is the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), a wonderful ideal world that is the best world there can be. Whatever I see differently is an indication of the difference between my corrupt and fictitious perception and the right perception, which I still lack. But if I make an effort to attain the right picture, the revelation of the infinite force of the good and the benevolent, that there is none else besides Him, I perform a correction in my senses; I calibrate them so that I can perceive reality correctly.

Then I suddenly see a totally different picture! I was simply cross-eyed and so the world seemed distorted, and now I see its real form. I calibrate my tool that is not calibrated in order to see that the Creator is good and benevolent. The whole distortion was only in my senses and not in the Creator whom I thought had created a bad world. It is because of my corruptions that I saw that the perfect world of Ein Sof is so corrupted. But thanks to the correction, I come closer to the truth and reach adhesion with the Creator, in agreement with Him.

This is the only thing we should do: correct our perception. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world, but how can you reveal Him in this world? We think that this world is where we are until we die. This isn’t exactly so, but actually a much deeper concept.

The revelation of the Creator in this world means that we should discover and see the world of Ein Sof above the picture of this world. This revelation is a result of our efforts: the moment we really want to see the Creator as the absolute good and benevolent, He will be revealed, since then we will be asking for our correction and so the Light will come and fix everything.

Question: A person usually understands that everything comes from the Creator, but thinks that it is impossible to understand and to justify Him.

Answer: No, we actually come to understand the Creator, to justify, reveal, measure, and attain the whole perception and wisdom. This is actually what we call the revelation of the Creator to the created beings which should fill all of a person’s cells, both the emotional and the mental ones.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/07/14

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In the News (from Nature): “A manuscript that lay unnoticed by scientists for decades has revealed that Albert Einstein once dabbled with an alternative to what we now know as the Big Bang theory, proposing instead that the Universe expanded steadily and eternally. The recently uncovered work [It had been stored in plain sight at the Albert Einstein Archives in Jerusalem] written in 1931, is reminiscent of a theory championed by British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle nearly 20 years later. Einstein soon abandoned the idea, but the manuscript reveals his continued hesitance to accept that the Universe was created during a single explosive event. …

“The manuscript was probably ‘a rough draft commenced with excitement over a neat idea and soon abandoned as the author realized he was fooling himself,’ says cosmologist James Peebles of Princeton University in New Jersey. There seems to be no record of Einstein ever mentioning these calculations again.

“But the fact that Einstein experimented with the steady-state concept demonstrates his continued resistance to the idea of a Big Bang, which he at first found ‘abominable,’ even though other theoreticians had shown it to be a natural consequence of his general theory of relativity.”

My Comment: Although in my lectures I constantly mention the Big Bang as a starting point of the beginning of our world, all that we study is viewed only in relation to man, an observer, who, in this case, feels and perceives what is felt “in himself,” in his properties, and therefore it is necessary to speak not about the world around us and its changes, but about the change of our “perception within ourselves” and its changes, as new Reshimot are manifested in us. See the perception of reality in “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar“.
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Opinion (Alan Lightman, American physicist, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of the international bestseller Einstein’s Dreams):  “If the amount of dark energy in our universe were only a little bit different than what it actually is, then life could never have emerged. A little larger, and the universe would have accelerated so rapidly that matter in the young universe could never have pulled itself together to form stars and hence complex atoms made in stars. And, going into negative values of dark energy, a little smaller and the universe would have decelerated so rapidly that it would have recollapsed before there was time to form even the simplest atoms.

“Out of all the possible amounts of dark energy that our universe might have, the actual amount lies in the tiny sliver of the range that allows life. There is little argument on this point. It does not depend on assumptions about whether we need liquid water for life or oxygen or particular biochemistries. It depends only on the requirement of atoms. As before, one is compelled to ask the question: Why does such fine-tuning occur? And the answer many physicists now believe: the multiverse. A vast number of universes may exist, with many different values of the amount of dark energy. Our particular universe is one of the universes with a small value, permitting the emergence of life. We are here, so our universe must be such a universe. We are an accident. From the cosmic lottery hat containing zillions of universes, we happened to draw a universe that allowed life. But then again, if we had not drawn such a ticket, we would not be here to ponder the odds.”

My Comment: Why does one need to invent many universes, randomness, etc. if every day we become more convinced that “God does not roll dice,” and everything is logical and interconnected.
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Question: How do we establish the state of the embryo and the womb it needs by the connection between us?

Answer: It is a new phase in our development that has begun as a result of our progress. The stronger the connection between us, the more that can be revealed to you. After all, what I reveal to you is only for the sake of our future work.

We see that the world is made of two forces, two halves: the internal part, which is me, and the external part, which is the group. Then the group becomes the internal part and the whole world becomes the external part. These waves spread and draw further and further away from the center. Thus you can establish more and more advanced forms of the spiritual embryo and the spiritual womb each time.

First I was an embryo and the group was my womb. Then I and the group connect into one whole and become the embryo while everything that is around us becomes a womb, which is the greater group, which is all of humanity.

The terms internal and external constantly expand. First I was considered the internal part and the group was the external part, then both the group and I became the internal part and all of humanity became the external part. It’s like levels that fold into one another. The whole world is divided into two parts: an internal part and an external part. The internal part is called Israel and the external part is called the nations of the world.

We have to constantly think about how to establish these concepts. We have to even establish the concept of humanity since now it has no form. If we reach a state in which we become a group, we become an embryo with regard to humanity that is supposed to be our womb, and we start to work with it.

The spiritual embryo builds the womb by itself! After all, we ascend from the bottom up and establish the upper level by ourselves. Therefore, the Creator is called Bore, is called “come and see” (Bo-Re). We have to establish both the form of humanity and the Creator by our work from the bottom up.

We must constantly keep this picture of the world. It has to become our constant perception of reality, the image of life, our philosophy, the glasses through which we see the world. When I am in the group, I perceive myself with regard to the group. However, when I go out to disseminate, I perceive myself together with the group with regard to all of humanity.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2.13.14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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In Preparation for the Integral Convention

The Good Future of the World

The reality in which we are found is portrayed under the influence of the Light on the desire. We can change the relationship between the Light and desire, consciously or unconsciously, consistently, in stages, intelligently, with our own powers, through shared work, or as if by chance, as is written: “The Creator will accomplish that which concerneth me” (Psalm 138:8).

However, in every circumstance, the reality that we perceive, both the physical and the spiritual, is portrayed through the action of the Light on the desire. And when we reach the equivalence of the Light and the desire, complementing them, making peace between them, we bring peace to the whole world.

Therefore even people without a point in the heart who are not prepared to create a connection between the Light and the Kli and to equate their form by means of the Masach and Ohr Hozer, see the world differently. They don’t see it as the spiritual world because there are no spiritual components to their sensitivities. Yet since they also aspire to unity through various desires, whether speaking of a desire for money, security, education, honor, or control, they will be released from all the problems in their lives.

Of course, gradually other problems will be discovered in order to advance them further, but they will see that the world is coming closer to the good all the time. And this is already the good way, the path of Torah, and not the path of suffering. As a result of the unity from the unconscious influence of the Light upon them, they will see the changes for the better. They will discover the operating system of reality, meaning they will feel that thanks to good relations between them, the world is changing, changing their perception, their internal reaction to what is happening.

Will they be healthier? Yes. Will they discover other positive phenomena? Yes. Will there be fewer natural disasters? Yes. We will yet see how a person will activate the inner forces connected to the nature of the still, the vegetative, and the animate.

It’s up to us to understand that we have the strongest weapon that can be. All the forces of nature are for us, and even the Creator, in fact, wants to say to us: “Please use Me. Everything is in your hands.”

When we bring peace to the world, people will be involved only in a circular connection. Perhaps part of them will work about an hour per day; and with the rest of the time everyone will be involved with thoughts about how to resemble the Creator and will feel pleasure in doing so.

We still don’t understand how this could be, but that’s what will be. This will become the center of life. Besides the necessities, people will be involved only with connection to others, in bringing the connection between them to a greater depth, greater sensitivity, until the physical body and the material world are discovered as imaginary.

Another world will begin to unfold; connections beyond this world will be discovered, and we will see that all of these “spider webs” are interdependent. And as a result, people will begin to understand the wisdom, the thought of creation that is latent in all of its parts. This is called the glow of Divinity, the revelation of Divinity, meaning everything breathes, one thing depends upon another.
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Preparation for the Integral Convention, Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 8

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In the News (from the University of California, Santa Cruz): “Astronomers have discovered a distant quasar illuminating a vast nebula of diffuse gas, revealing for the first time part of the network of filaments thought to connect galaxies in a cosmic web. …

“The standard cosmological model of structure formation in the universe predicts that galaxies are embedded in a cosmic web of matter, most of which (about 84 percent) is invisible dark matter. This web is seen in the results from computer simulations of the evolution of structure in the universe, which show the distribution of dark matter on large scales, including the dark matter halos in which galaxies form and the cosmic web of filaments that connect them. Gravity causes ordinary matter to follow the distribution of dark matter, so filaments of diffuse, ionized gas are expected to trace a pattern similar to that seen in dark matter simulations.”

My Comment: With each passing day we become increasingly convinced that the whole of nature, our universe, the Earth, and we ourselves are elements of a single system that is permeated with all types of connections so that there is no distancing from one to another, but rather absolute interconnection is manifested.

Humanity, as part of nature, is obliged to bring itself into compliance with this universal law of nature that is increasingly manifested. Otherwise, we will constantly and progressively experience all the consequences of our incongruity with nature.
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 24: The essence of the body is but a desire to receive for itself, and all its manifestations and possessions are fulfillments of that corrupted will to receive, which had initially been created only to be eradicated from the world, in order to achieve the complete third state at the end of correction. For this reason, it is mortal, transitory, and contemptible, along with all its possessions, like a fleeting shadow that leaves nothing in its wake.

Nothing ever happens to the desire. It only increasingly divulges itself while going through a 125 steps, whereas egoistic intentions arise together with desires. However, those are two different things: a desire to receive and an intention for the sake of receiving.

We should never cancel the desire. We are not planning to turn into hermits; rather, we strive to change our intention from egoistic to altruistic. It is the intention for the sake of receiving that has to be “eradicated from the world.”

We perceive the picture of the world through our intentions, through ourselves and our surroundings. This picture will disappear if we re-direct our intentions from the will to receive to the will to bestow. Everything we see today, the entire world with all its particularities and phenomena, with life and death, everything unfolds inside our will to receive that has an egoistic intention. If we change intentions, we start seeing an “inverted” world that is called the upper world, the first spiritual level. Then, we start observing something quite different.

While sensing the material, we have a chance to convert it with the help of the upper force, a group, and by using other means. We are the ones who start the “revolution,” because the first  time anything is revealed we see it as corrupt, as if it reflects in a “distorted mirror” of our egoistic intention.

So far, our selfish intentions “saddle” tiny desires of this world; this is what makes this realm look the way it is to us. Then, let’s say at the thirtieth step, there appears a desire that is a billion times bigger, yet it still originates from the will to receive. It would be dreadful as if we were among “dinosaurs,” in a monstrous jungle of immensely, powerful egoistic desires.

People would look as hellish “fiends” to us; they would seem like criminals, crooks, liars, villains, a wickedness that we currently cannot even imagine. In essence, we would see the evil forces that belong to this particular step. We would consider the lessons to be outrageous stupidity, utter nonsense. Even the group would appear in such a terrible shape that we wouldn’t tolerate our friends’ company, nor would we be able to breathe the same air with them.

However, if we find the strength to overcome this situation and change, then we would figure out that everything is just wonderful. In fact, nothing will change, but somehow all of a sudden we will see the world around us permeated with Light, where everybody receives benevolence from the Creator, nobody ever suffers, no one dies of hunger, or kills others. Our friends look as if they are the greatest people on the face of the Earth, and there is nobody higher than them. Baal HaSulam writes about this state in his article “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator.”

We all go through these states, the pendulum swings stronger each time, and everything depends on changing our intention, turning it into the opposite, from egoism to altruism. The desires remain intact, only the intentions change.

One way or the other, the Creator never brings us to bestowal; otherwise, He would have stolen the chance for us to know Him. He leads us only through disasters in our will to receive so that we acknowledge the need to bestow.

At first, we try to escape troubles that force us to blame and curse Him. Then, with the help of a group, lessons, and dissemination, by lowering our heads in front of our friends and the teacher, we turn to the Creator, and plead with Him to help us.

Question: Isn’t it a pretty long path of suffering?

Answer: The trick is how we accept the suffering. Without the sufferings, it is impossible to wake up. Any state starts with sorrows: “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

Our path is long not because of the troubles we go through but because we don’t react to them in a correct way.

This explains why we need preparation and a correct attitude. There is no doubt that our states will change soon, and we will feel emptiness; moreover, we can start hating our friends as Rabbi Shimon’s disciples did. And yet we continue advancing because everything that happens to us is for a purpose, to lead us forward.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 24: And since the essence of the soul is but a desire to bestow, and all its manifestations and possessions are fulfillments of that desire to bestow, which already exists in the eternal first state, as well as in the future third state, it is immortal and irreplaceable. Rather, it and all its possessions are eternal and exist forever. Absence does not affect whatsoever at the departure of the body.

“The death of the body” refers to the death of the egoistic desire to receive. The moment it gets rid of the intention of in order to receive, it means that it becomes the body for the soul.

Each and every part of the egoistic desire to receive in order to receive is called a corrupt and impure body. When it makes a restriction (Tzimtzum) on itself, it “dies,” and then it receives the power and acquires the intention of in order to bestow. When the intention of in order to bestow “rides” on the desire to receive, it fills it with the Upper Light and gives it the power of bestowal, the Returning Light (Ohr Hozer).

Then the Returning Light and the Direct Light, which meet in the corrected desire that has the right intention, fill it with life. Then the desire is in equivalence of form with the Light and becomes the body of the soul or the Partzuf. The Light that fills it is called the Light of life that is in it. There is nothing other than that; there is no Heaven or Hell after the corporeal body dies, as it seems to us.

In fact, this body doesn’t exist at all. The world that we see is merely a hologram. The truth is that the desire to receive with the intention of in order to receive doesn’t exist. It’s only depicted to us this way as a fictitious picture with which we have to work and learn to change our intention to in order to bestow.

In our current state in this world, we are detached from the spiritual ladder so that we will enter each spiritual level from a neutral state that is external to spiritually. Thus we acquire the spiritual world by ourselves. This is why this world is important and this is why we were given this fictitious state. Without it we wouldn’t be able to enter spirituality. But still, this world remains external to the real categories of our existence.

The whole system of the shells, which brings so many troubles, problems, and death doesn’t exist either. It only exists as a replica, the opposite side, the oppositeness, of the Creator. In fact, the system of the shells is not more than a reflection, a shadow; it exists only when there is a flaw, a barrier, that blocks the Light.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There is only one force that draws me to the reality together with all the people and this world. I need to reach the state in which I will see, in reality, the only one force that operates it. Although this world will remain in my perception, I will, nevertheless, see only one force that clothes in it and operates it.

So, why do so many people, animals, and this huge universe surround me? Why does the world divide into such a tremendous amount of pieces, instead of being one material, one desire? But, it is specifically there where the uniqueness of this world lies, that is, that it appears to us to be separate from the spiritual world. This picture, specifically because it is imaginary and doesn’t exist in connection with the Creator, can be seen in us even when we reach Gmar Tikkun (end of correction). This is a very special form of reality.

Thus, we ascend the spiritual ladder and see how the Creator is clothed in the entire world, which is on the same level that we are on. The Creator rules all the attributes of the upper worlds, but still this world remains. This corporeal form remains, seemingly outside of the spiritual space. I can feel spiritual levels that are very different, that differ very much from each other, but the form of the corporeal world remains intact in my five senses.

This is the wonder that allows us to work on the perception of the upper force.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Shamati #15 “What Is Other Gods in the Work”

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