Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: By these words, I only mean to show that the Torah and the natural law of development go hand in hand in wondrous unity even with blind fate.

Although it seems that my life is managed by blind fate, it is in fact managed by the natural law of evolution. It seems that my fate depends on many accidental incidents, but in fact all the events and occurrences in my life are predetermined by creation.

Only one thing depends on me and that is how I accept these events. If I prepare myself correctly, then I can accept and feel them in an opposite way than I feel them today. Today I have a special “receiver,” a mechanism with a sensor, that can totally change the receiving, the feeling, from minus one hundred percent to plus one hundred percent.

But the whole chain of events doesn’t change and I will go through all of them. The Creator initiates this process and manages creation, but on the way He gives you a chance to accept His actions if you want to. If you don’t want to, then He will make you want to.

It is because there is none else besides Him. Everything is already predetermined and even if He changes the “letters” in this “story,” which means if one letter doesn’t match and He replaces it by another letter, it is only with regard to my feeling, so that I will work on it better.

In fact, I am in an eternal process and can only ask myself about my perception: “Are there actually any changes? And if so, are they inside or outside of me?”

But if it is about my impressions, then I can certainly change them. If I don’t change them, they will become so unpleasant that eventually I will try to change them and correct my “receiver.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/04/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabash: “Make Haste My Beloved”: Therefore when one prays for the general, he engages in bestowal by this prayer. And the more he prays, the vessel of bestowal is formed to the same extent, so that the Light of bestowal, called “merciful” can be revealed.

We don’t know how it happens. We have troubling thoughts only about ourselves and we cannot think about anything else. We read and hear that we have to think about the group, about the environment, about the friends, but we don’t have the power to do so.

Sometimes we succeed but mostly we don’t. We may remember for a couple of minutes that we should think about others, but then we suddenly encounter some personal problem which troubles us more than anything else and deviates us from the love of friends, the Creator, and the next world.

We see that what we go through now in this world, the need to solve a certain problem that has come up, is the most important thing for us. Sometimes we cannot get rid of such thoughts for months and sometimes we are occupied with them for years and they cause us great pain.

This is how the Creator teaches us and reveals to us our true state. He gives us the accurate standard by which we can evaluate the state we are in: What thoughts and desires we have, what matter we are made of, which means what exactly the desire to receive is. Thus we learn about our matter and how deeply immersed we are in troubling thoughts about ourselves that come up one after another and constantly occupy us. We keep returning to them and cannot do anything about it.

Sometimes they occupy us more and we are totally immersed in our concern about ourselves. Sometimes this pressure decreases and we understand that all these problems were given to us on purpose in order to teach us to resist them and not to dedicate our whole life to them. Sometimes we feel that all these problems are supposed to push us to other thoughts: about the goal of life and its meaning instead of being immersed in our small worries about our corporeal existence. After all, no real disaster ever happens.

Still, we cannot get rid of these egoistic thoughts. This is how the Creator teaches a person and it’s about that that it says “make haste my beloved.” We don’t feel the importance of the Creator anymore, the greatness of the goal. We wake up in the middle of the night troubled with our eternal personal problems and cannot get rid of them. They simply give us no rest.

We turn to the group for help, to the friends, and don’t know what else we can do. Thanks to the fact that we are among friends and participate in their activities, we finally understand, after all these efforts, that everything that happens is a game from above by which we have to learn how we are being played with from above. We see that the Creator trains us and wants to reveal to us the uppermost importance of the spiritual development by doing it.

We suddenly begin to feel that the thoughts about the friends are more important to us than all the troubling thoughts about ourselves. On the basis of these thoughts we can examine and measure how important the spiritual goal is, which means bestowal upon others, thinking about the friends and worrying about all of humanity. It is compared to the troubling thoughts that we get a chance to assess whether we can hold ourselves above them to the same extent, and worry about the good of others and the Creator.

We understand that this process is essential so that we will finally understand the importance of our spiritual advancement, of the spiritual goal. After all, spirituality has no form, no picture, no image; we form the spiritual world by ourselves, like a wrapping that is made of the intention of in order to bestow above our corporeal life. It’s as if we change the world into an opposite world and thus build the spiritual world.

It’s as if the spiritual world does not exist before we build it with regard to the person who attains it. It turns out that it’s actually above the troubling egoistic thoughts about ourselves and struggling with the problems that we have a chance to build the spiritual form that is fulfilled in us. This is why it says “your own eyes will see and not a foreigner’s eyes.” Only then will those who can face all the obstacles and overcome them—and by them learn how to build the cover of bestowal on top of all our corporeal reality—turn it into our spirituality to see the Creator.

Then we see that life has no meaning by itself. This world is only an illusion that was created on purpose so we would be able to build the real eternal spiritual world on top of it.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/13

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All our work is inner concentration because the external reality does not change no matter how much we expect it to do. The reality is defined only by its perception within us and entirely depends on a person’s properties. A person changes, and through that reality which he felt in his five sense organs before, he sees other connections in our world, a new reality, the presence of the upper force. Gradually, this force becomes huge, controlling everything and supporting the entire reality.

But now we neither see nor notice it. This is the only thing that changes to the extent that this earthly reality disappears completely with the death of the body and only the spiritual reality remains. Everything depends on how we change from a “feeling” person to a “believing” person.

The difference between the two is determined by the instruments with which we work. If we perceive the reality in the desire to enjoy, this is called a person of feeling, and if in the desire to bestow, then this is called a person of faith. But they both imply sensations. Faith is also a sensation only in the Reflected Light, in the desire aimed at bestowal instead of reception.

The feeling of his distance from the Creator means that a person has received more sensitive instruments (Kli) for measuring his attitude to the Creator. Just a few days ago at the convention we felt more connected with each other to such an extent that a person disappeared within the feeling of our community. The general force and inspiration held him, allowing him to stop feeling himself.

But this can happen with any joyous enthusiasm when many people, united by one idea, one opinion, thought, purpose, and reason, get together and thus they feel their unity. How is our state different from others? It is in order to make it different from them that we are now given the sensation of descent, distancing from the light state. We feel that we miss something in this state so that it could remain.

We ourselves are not able to keep it; it requires the presence of some new force, a new reality, that is above us. This sense of alienation means the expansion of our desires, the tools of perception, to a new depth and width, an increase of their inner sensitivity, as well as the obtaining of a more powerful external force.

And thus we see that we cannot cope with this. We are seemingly immersed in a vast sea of feelings left from the convention, which is gradually cooling down and soon will freeze completely. We cannot stop this. The trend is clear, but it is not clear how to resist this.

First of all, you need to understand that this trend is natural and you should try to protect yourself from it, to stop, to fight with this cooling as much as possible, but only in order to sharpen your sensation of this distancing, trying to retain the previous warm feeling as much as possible!

And in spite of all our efforts, we can see that we are not capable of this. We will check our state, comparing how it is changing from day to day, and will understand that our inspiration is gradually fading. Sometimes the thoughts of unity come but immediately disappear. And today’s state is even further from what is was yesterday.

But feeling our separation from the great King, one must understand that it is not real alienation, but simply the Creator increasing one’s degree of sensitivity to the state, increases one’s desire quantitatively and qualitatively. And then a person feels that he lacks something in the same state.

In fact, we are still in the same state because nothing disappears in spirituality. But in every successive state, we lack our unity and the presence of the Creator to a greater extent.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/13

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Our role is to understand that there is one and only one global nature, and we are the ones who need to connect it through mutual integration, through our intentions. Therefore the concept of “There is none else besides him” is derived from the unity of nature; there is nothing besides the one system that includes everything within it.

And it seems to us as separate because we are also separated, and therefore we don’t see the world as it is but see it according to the condition in which each person feels it solely and only individually within himself. The reason the world seems to us as separate, mutually distant, can be found in the lack of mutual connections between each other; this is discovered more and more with each passing day due to the fact that our ego is constantly growing. Moreover, its acceleration is growing acutely hyperbolic; we see how every year, every month, every week, and even every day, everything in the world is changing very rapidly. And this change is happening specifically because the same changes are happening in us. The world is felt solely and only individually. Therefore the method by which the world is felt correctly is derived from this as well; if we change our characteristics, then we change how the world is felt.

Currently there has already been much work done on this subject by philosophers, psychologists, and physicists. Scientists are gradually beginning to approach the awareness that the world depends on our subjective feelings, yet they are all identical. While everyone feels the world differently, they all feel it in the same manner through our egoistic characteristics. If we correct them so that the characteristics become opposite, then certainly we would feel the world differently: as integral and mutually linked. From here is derived one of the assumptions of our method: “Don’t think about correcting the world…” By these words we mean humanity. We don’t correct the world; rather we correct ourselves. So we begin to feel not only the world, but also ourselves within it completely differently. Ultimately, our movement from the present state, which is called “our world,” to the future state, which is called the “world of the infinity,” is in its entirety an inner correction of how we feel the world, and no more than this.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day One” 7/12/13, Lesson 1

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Question: How can we advance spiritually if we constantly have material pressure and the pressure of a consumer society?

Answer: Who gives you this? It is the upper force, the unified force of nature that controls everything and fills in all the twists and turns in our common destiny.

There are moments when you forget about this and try to blame someone else instead of the Creator. Society is not to blame. He alone is to blame. However, how can we blame Him? How can the upper force that is in a state of absolute love and bestowal be bad? The fact is that you perceive it in this way because your egoistic intention inverts it. So, you perceive the entire surrounding world as bad.

Actually, the entire world around us is infinite kindness and love. Change your intention and there will be no problems in anything.

On the other hand, we must give thanks for the problems that we have because they show you precisely what you need to change.
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From the Convention in St. Petersburg 7/11/13, “Preparatory Lesson”

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Question: What is the most important day of the convention? At what moment should our efforts be maximized?

Answer: The most important thing for me, you, and you and me is to find a common current between us so it grows into contact between everyone, so this common desire floats and begins to gather a greater concentration of desires, thoughts, and intentions, so all of this begins to live between us, not in each of us, but between us. And everyone will begin to treasure and care about it because we will start feeling our real existence in this “crimson ball.”

It depends on how you get together, strive for unity, value it, and are afraid to lose it from your senses. Then it will accompany us all the time; we’ll carry it all the time.

That is why I cannot say when it will start; I already have this feeling and am trying to pass it to you. Create, treasure, keep all this, and include all the friends in it.
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From the Convention in St. Petersburg 7/11/13, “Preparatory Lesson”

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A “slave” is a desire that I have assimilated inside me and it is thus under my full control. At the same time, I have subdued it to such an extent that it isn’t considered my ego anymore, but a full partner.

I can fully use it, not by pressure as I did when I was using it by force, but rationally and logically. This means that it is already in full agreement with me.

We only talk about intentions and desires since there is nothing other than that in a person. A person is a small world, so everything that we see, the picture of the world with everyone in it, is all a reflection of my inner attributes and nothing but that. If there is anything in the world inside me, it is a sign that this is how I see my own reflection.

This is the way I should arrange everything in my head while reading the sources, until I actually realize that. Gradually both your mind and sight will be focused on that, and you will understand that it is really so. Even quantum physicists and psychologists are starting to talk about this now.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/29/13

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Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”: It is said that there are 600,000 souls, and each soul divides into several sparks. We must understand how it is possible for the spiritual to divide, since initially, only one soul was created, the soul of Adam HaRishon.

In my opinion, there is indeed only one soul in the world, as it is written (Genesis, 2:7), “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” The same soul exists in all the children of Israel, complete in each and every one, as in Adam HaRishon, since the spiritual is indivisible and cannot be cut—which is rather a trait of corporeal things.

Yet, saying that there are 600,000 souls and sparks of souls appears as though it is divided by the force of the body of each person. In other words, first, the body divides and completely denies him of the radiance of the soul, and by the force of the Torah and the Mitzva, the body is cleansed, and to the extent of its cleansing, the common soul shines upon him.

There is only one desire in reality. The Light has created a desire, and it operates on it. It restricts it, puts Masachim (screens) on it, and makes Partzufim and worlds of it. However, the desire remains the same desire. The word “worlds” (“Olamot” stems from the word “concealment” in Hebrew), and refers to the concealment of the Light in our perception and feelings. It is just like looking at the world without glasses and seeing a blurry world. The spiritual worlds are increasingly more accurate and clearer pictures that are revealed by “spiritual glasses” that I change each time as I correct myself, until I reach the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), which means the whole correction.

So, it is all about an individual perception and not about an external reality that actually exists. The picture of the world depends on the person who attains it.

On the whole, there is one soul, but each one perceives it according to his level of preparation. We are always in the same place, in the same system, but each one is connected to it emotionally and mentally to a different extent, according to his attainment and his understanding. It is like a newborn baby who hardly perceives anything. It is only after a couple of months that he begins to perceive some details of the whole picture. It is as if he is also in a state of concealment in some part and in a state of in revelation in another, and at first the concealment is much greater than the revelation.

A person gradually perceives more clearly where he is according to his advancement and his development. We are not talking about anything new, but about the revelation that is part of our perception. So, all our development is in order to awaken, to build, and to prepare such a vessel of perception that will be sensitive to the revelation of the eternal unchanging eternal reality.

Our basic assumption is that there is only one soul in the world, a desire of Malchut of Ein Sof, and we attain this state to a certain extent as if looking at it through different types of glasses that determine the level of our closeness to it.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

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In our work, preparation is extremely important. It determines the outcome. It does not matter what you study or how much you know. The main thing is to prepare oneself, that is, to change one’s vessel, the desire, so as to feel the upper world instead of this world.

Nothing changes but yourself, and then you find out that the upper world is here, that it has always been here. Do you want paradise, here you go. Do you want hell, here you go. Take what you want, it all depends on your vessel.

It’s as if there is a “control” before you which you can rotate in either direction and it changes your world from one extreme to another, from one end of the scale to the other. You seemingly scroll a sequence of images in your computer.

All this is inside, in you, everything is outlined on a background of white light. The light itself is not knowable, as well as the darkness, we only see one against the other. Our present life is the minimally discernible contours of this picture…
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From the Talk About the Preparation for the Convention in St. Petersburg 6/26/13

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