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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Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: And in our subject, the benefit of each and every person within his collective is evaluated not according to his own goodness, but according to his service to the public. And vice-versa, we appreciate the attribute of evil of each and every individual only according to the harm one inflicts upon the public in general, and not by one’s own individual value.

These things are crystal clear both from the perspective of the truth in them, and from the perspective of the good in them. This is because what is found in the collective is only what is found in the individual. And the benefit of the collective is the benefit of each and every individual: who harms the collective takes his share in the harm, and who benefits the collective takes his share in the benefit, since individuals are part of the whole, and the whole is not worth in anyway more than the sum of its individuals.

Egoism does not allow us to understand and accept this; it distorts the picture. However, looking at things impartially, objectively, we will have to accept that everything is as it is. If you follow the simple normal logic, it is clear that this is how it should be. Nature is a unified integral mechanism, and obviously every part in it depends on everyone else, and the system as a whole depends on all its parts. In this case, of course, the collective and individual benefit is the same.

Question: But the individual cogwheel in this mechanism has no freedom of choice. Then what is the point of saying whether it is good or bad?

Answer: Indeed, the cogwheel itself has no free will. It cannot decide whether it should or should not rotate to the benefit of community. Everyone does what he or she is predestined to do from above.

However, this system has a mechanism similar to a clutch: the thing is the extent to which I am engaged internally with the “engine” to rotate with it without any questions asked.

Question: So, do we have free will?

Answer: It is to want to rotate or to rotate unwillingly. My freedom is in agreement. But I will be working in any case, either “under duress,” under the pressure of the “roller of development,” or of our own accord, with pleasure.

In general, the system is perfect and acts with absolute efficiency, but I feel and perceive it according to the measure of my consent to its work. In addition, others view it in the same way, and so in the end, we all feel the personal or collective flaw of disagreement—of the individual or of the system.

But nevertheless, our perception does not affect the system itself.

Question: How can we hasten correction?

Answer: To want to agree with the work of the system, with the movement of its parts. This will change everything in my feelings. I add and take away nothing in the true reality; the difference is only in how much its picture is distorted by the “distorting mirror” of my egoism.

My whole life is unfolding on this canvas as I “paint” myself relative to the true system, disagreeing with it in one way or another. And I call this picture “my world.” In essence, this is a snapshot, an impression of my disagreement with the original nature, with absolute love. My whole being is the projection on some “screen,” outlining this “discrepancy of opinion.” I do not see the real system; I see nothing, but my own internal flaws.

Question: Is there such a thing that’s detached from the wholeness of perception, my personal “corner”?

Answer: Yes. I can feel my desires to the extent of their oppositeness to the system. Thus, my world, like the spiritual reality, also consists of 613 parts, but each of them appears to me as opposite to the whole.

This oppositeness is divided into 125 degrees or stages of equivalence or non-equivalence. Now, I am sort of behind the last, the 125^th degree, in complete detachment, in absolute lack of understanding. Then, as I rise on each degree, I will discover the discrepancy between me and the system in greater resolution, and by correcting these flaws, I get closer to agreement, to “complete faith,” complete adhesion.

Thus, for the time being I see and feel only myself relative to the state that they want to show me. Of course, for comparison, I am not immediately offered the world of Infinity, the ideal system of nature, the Creator. It is impossible because now I can distinguish only a tiny discrepancy, like a child, who is encouraged to study well in class, and if he succeeds, he is praised as an “A” student.

At the same time, we must remember: Now I see myself, and nothing more.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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Question: What is the prerequisite for a desire to unite, is it my desire to understand and to feel everything within me?

Answer: During the process of spiritual work, our desire to understand and to feel everything within us does not contract; on the contrary, it goes and grows more and more.  And it must expand because it is becoming more and more integral.  I already begin to understand how my image of reality changes and that my body, by occupying a particular volume in physical space, gives me a feeling of distance, isolation from others, even opposition and difference from others.

I need to bring myself to a state where I feel myself freed from the body.  The body doesn’t exist.  Above my body, which is to say beyond the ego, there exists connection between me and others.  And the body doesn’t exist, it is some kind of egoistic image in my imagination, in our consciousness.  This is how I need to learn to describe my future state to myself.  What interests me is only the spiritual unity between us.  There is no significance to bodies.  Later we will see how they disappear.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah we learn about the birth of the spiritual Kli, about its growth and about changes of state.  The same thing takes place with us in our world, the birth and growth of our beastly body, which in principle is that ego.  Our body is what exists in our imagination, in fact, it is formed within our ego.  After that it melts, disappears, dies, and in its place another body appears, and another, and so forth until we go out to the level of the completed correction.  We return into the bodies all the time because they are imperative for us for our independent attainment of every spiritual level.

Between every spiritual level there is a disconnect, a split.  In order to attain a particular level you need to fall from it to the level of this world.  At least for a moment you must feel that you exist only in this beastly state, and after this you will begin to attain the next higher spiritual level.  You fall to this level all the time, and then again you carry out an energetic leap to the next higher level.

And only with the completion of all the corrections when you carry out an action called (Shmuel II 23:20) “…a valiant man from Kabtziel who had done many acts” (which is to say, “I will gather together”), when you gather all of these levels and connect them integrally then the last state of the full completion of the correction appears.  And until then, we correct every value in a discrete (isolated) form, just as an electron leaps within the atom to the next levels.  But in general when it leaps it emits photons, whereas, we do the opposite because we are ascending spiritually; therefore, we apparently absorb energy from the surrounding energetic field called “Creator” or “Light,” and this obligates our ascent to a higher and higher orbit.
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From the 2^nd Preparation for the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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The Torah, Exodus, 20:14: “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.”

A house, a wife, a servant, an ox, or an ass are all a person’s major desires that gradually connect in him, starting from the external vessels to the most inner desires.

“Thou shall not covet,” means that you have to work with your desires in order to bestow and not for yourself.

If until now it was about what you have and how you should work with it, now it is about what the other has and what you cannot use.

To use means to “want.” It isn’t just “thou shall not covet” in the sense of “don’t take” but actually not to covet, so that you will not feel the slightest envy towards the other. Then you begin to understand that if you relate to him you will not even see his image.

Usually you see some good and some bad in a person and envy him a little, etc. You cannot see him as he actually is; you see him in relation to you, whether better or worse one way or the other. If you don’t look at him through the prism of envy etc., you will not see his image.

He will never be depicted to you, since our sub-base is like a compact disc that is sensitive to light, that is behind the camera lens that catches the picture, changes it into electric signals and transmits it to the control so our sub-base perceives everything only in relation to us: to what extent it seems better or worse with regards to my ego.

If I get rid of it in relation to myself, then I don’t see you, you disappear from my sight. What happens? It turns out that the world doesn’t exist. I only see an absolute vacuum.

This means that the corrected state implies lack of envy in me and all the other states with regard to other people and humanity. In that case, I begin to understand that there is no one and that everything disappears. Then I have to find a totally new attribute that will allow me to see what does exist.

It turns out that if my ego is nullified, then the whole picture of the world is nullified and the world does not exist. So what does exist? There is nothing but the attribute of bestowal. But how can I perceive it? I begin to change myself according to this attribute of bestowal and to the same extent I am not compatible with it, I begin to see the differences and vice versa; to the extent that I am compatible with it, I begin to feel this attribute since a contrast has been created. It turns out that the part of the world in which I am not compatible with the attribute of bestowal is still me for the time being and the part of the world in which I am compatible with the attribute of bestowal is the Creator. Then, I and the Creator appear and there is no one but us.

When I gradually attain full correction, it is as if I disappear and only my feeling of the one unique Creator remains. Thus, I reach the recognition that “there is none else besides Him”
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/04/13

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