Question: What is the difference between spiritual cooperation and a corporeal, egoistic union?

Answer: A union of egoists will produce an egoistic outcome. Suppose a group of people get together to beat up someone. In this case, they certainly would get some benefit for themselves. The same thing is true in business and everything else where the strong win over the weak.

And how is an altruistic connection manifested? How can they connect at all? I want to give, you want to give, he wants to give, but where, and to whom do we give? Can we give to someone on the outside? Then, we would not be understood at all.

When altruists come together, they create an altruistic field between them where they discover a good force called “Nature” or the “Creator.”

They reveal this force between them, between their mutual altruistic movement, and it turns out that their achievement is felt as attainment of eternal life beyond our world, above our world. They exist in a new dimension, in a new field created by them as part of a “spiritual bubble,” and they exist in it.

Out of this “spiritual bubble,” which they created between them through mutual altruistic movement, they do not see our world the way an ordinary person sees it. They do not see matter and images, but the forces that are behind our bodies and the objects of this world. They have a completely different perception of reality.

They feel the matter of our world not only through their five senses, but also through the general property of bestowal that they have achieved, and they see the forces that govern the universe. This is called: They have reached their soul. That is why a union of altruists, in contrast to a union of egoists, takes them to the next level, the next dimension.

Question: Do they set this goal, or is it the result of the action?

Answer: They set an absolutely clear goal for themselves: to reach the level of the property of bestowal, the level of the altruistic upper world. This is the goal from the side of the Creator and from the side of man.
[102005]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/3/13

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Baal HaSulam, ‘Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 9: And the only difference between the souls and His essence is that the souls are a part of His essence. This means that the amount of Light that they receive in their Kli, being the will to receive, is already separated from the Creator, as it is predicated on the disparity of form of the will to receive. And this disparity of form made it a part by which they were separated from the “whole” and became a “part.” Thus, the only difference between them is that one is a “whole” and the other is a “part,” as a stone that is carved from a mountain.

Now we are in a space with myriad waves and radiations of different frequencies that cover the whole space from zero to infinity. We perceive these waves with the help of different receivers, which can be tuned to these waves and perceive them. The receiver perceives the wave according to the equivalence with the wave, which means that the receiver creates a certain wave that is a replica of the wave on the outside and then they enter one another and create a resonance, which means that they connect. I perceive this connection and feel whether, for example, it is a radio wave that I can hear or whether it is the range of a television wave that I can see.

Thus, I perceive the “wave” of the general soul, since all of creation is a soul, a spiritual vessel that is totally filled by the Light, by Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity). When I am external to it, I only have a small “sensor,” a spark that I have received and that I have to develop now in order to perceive wave after wave. Thus I create and develop the “receiver,” and by it, I perceive part of the “whole” that I am in, part of my soul. Generally speaking, all the space of Malchut is my soul, which I am going to acquire. But I discover this gradually to the extent that I develop my “receiver,” my vessels of perception. So it turns out that it is me who separates the part from the whole according to my currently corrected attributes.
[101940]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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All our work is not to exert ourselves for a payment but to make the work the actual payment. This is our goal, to reach a state in which my exertion, my work, the chance to bestow upon the other and through him upon the Creator, will become the desired payment. In order to reach that I am ready to prepare all the possible means, since my correction depends on that.

Then we will stop feeling the past, the present and the future—time will disappear. It is because time is measured only according to deficiency and fulfillment. But if there is no deficiency and fulfillment, but everything is the same, everything is whole and complete, then I will stop feeling time.

If I don’t feel any difference in fulfillment—not here and not in greater distances, not in other times, and not in the relations between everyone—then, the whole world becomes only one great opportunity for me to exert myself, which is my payment at that point, not before that and not after that, but right now. And then all of reality becomes the simple white Light that fills all of reality.

For me everything is based on my exertion, but in it, I immediately discover bestowal and pleasure as the goal. Thus we rise above time, motion, and space, above the images and manners of this world, and exert ourselves only so that everything in the whole level of Aviut (thickness) is revealed, we will correct ourselves to such a state that we feel no more trouble but only pleasure from what we do.

It is the same in our world; if I enjoy a certain action, I don’t perceive it as painful, as an effort, but simply as a pleasure. Although the body may expend a lot of energy and calories performing this action, I will not feel that I am losing something and that I have to compensate myself for that, but will feel pleasure and fulfillment.

Here everything depends on how well a person understands that he and what is external to him, which means the other, are the same, whether he sees that the whole world belongs to him. Then he will not feel any exertion. It is because all the exertion is only in the relations between me and what is external to me when I have to do something outside myself and give to others in order to receive something from them in return. But if the whole world is one body, then the exertion disappears and so does the passage from me to others and from them to me.

All my fears, anxieties, insecurities, and sufferings disappear because they don’t exist in one body where everything is one. So all our work is to reach this feeling by the environment, by my efforts, by the Light that Reforms, that there is nothing outside myself. In the true perception of the reality there is only one state and one place. This place is called Shechina or Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) and the one state is called adhesion.
[101937]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “A Sage’s Fruit”: During a common prayer a person is prohibited to separate from the others and to ask for himself, even if he wants to bring pleasure to the Creator, but he is going to do it himself, and not with the others. After all, he who disconnects from society and asks for his own individual soul does not build it, but on the contrary, he damages his soul, by becoming the “proud man, with whom the Creator cannot be together.”

It’s not easy to overcome this difficult psychological problem. Our ego does not allow us to understand, to remember, to learn, and to adopt the rule that only by coming out of the boundaries of our body will we find the vessel of our soul. And everything that I psychologically see now as my “I” exists only in my fantasy so that I must cancel this thinking, annul myself, and see myself outside of it.

To accept this fact, this worldview, and to live with it, we need the strong support of the environment and studies and hard work in mutual guarantee. Any action of correction starts from this because every time more egoism is added to us, we have to work with this additional load in order to decide that, in spite of it, our vessel is above it.

These messages: “That which is hateful to you, don’t do to others” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself” seem to us simple rules of courtesy, “cultural” behavior, moral homilies. But no, we talk about an internal orientation that must exist in a person if he wants to find his inner part, his soul, and begin to correct it.

That is why the one who prays for himself not only does not advance in spirituality, but also causes great harm to himself because by this he cuts himself off from the others, worsening the breaking. Although it’s clear that negative actions are also inevitable because a person needs to come to the realization of evil before he understands and feels that this is an incorrect attitude.

But we are about to complete this work, and that is why we must understand and constantly reinforce the general opinion that spiritual existence, advancement, and the result of work are only in “We,” not in “me,” but only between us. This where we need to draw all our forces, trying to accustom ourselves to this view and replace ourselves with “We” in order to live inside the soul.
[101778]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 4: To understand these questions and inquiries, the only tactic is to examine the end of the act, that is, the purpose of Creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end.

This is the rule, only by observing the end of the act can we understand all the details, the phases, the reasons for everything, and the whole process. It’s because only at the end does it become clear how essential every detail is and to what extent all these details had to be arranged one after the other in this order; only at the end do we see that everything is complete. The complete end is possible only when all the details are arranged correctly. But how do we reach the end if we are in the middle of our path?

And it is clear that there is no act without a purpose. We see this today in modern science, where everything does indeed operate according to a cause and effect relationship and according to absolute laws. At least on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate, nature, I discover great wisdom, logic, and common sense; there is nothing redundant, and everything is arranged so that every small detail is connected to all the other endless details. I can thus come to a conclusion regarding the level of the “speaking”: that the corruption I see in it stems from my corrupt personal perception, which doesn’t allow me to see the wonderful order that is also on the level of the “speaking,” but on the contrary, shows me a picture that is opposite from the truth. We actually see corruption and great disorder in human society, but it’s because we are causing it.

Of course, there can be another explanation for this phenomenon: We can say that the Creator is good and benevolent and that He includes everything and does everything, but that he has abandoned His creation. Baal HaSulam brings different examinations of this approach in his article “The Peace.” However, if I already respond to what I see in life and use different approaches, I understand better that it’s preferable to look at the end result. By the experience from our studies, we see that nature develops according to a certain goal, and so, Baal HaSulam says that we should first look at the goal of creation since it’s impossible to understand anything half way, but only by looking at the final result.

I know that there are those who cast over their backs the burden of Torah and Mitzvot (plural for Mitzva), saying the Creator has created the whole of reality, then left it alone. Here, Baal HaSulam refers to people who don’t believe that everything was created for man, that man is in the center of creation, and that only from this point can we develop correctly. Everything was created for me—our whole world and all the worlds—and I have to accept this, to reveal it, and to control the situation; “for me” means that I can correct it and use it. This use is called “observing the Mitzvot” which I do by the help of the Light that Reforms or the “Torah.” Thus I reach the goal of creation.

Indeed, without knowledge they have spoken, for it is impossible to comment on our lowliness and nothingness before we decide that we have created ourselves with all our corrupted and loathsome natures. It’s clear that we are not whole, but it’s impossible to decide that the world is lowly if we don’t see how everything in it gradually reveals its wholeness.

The question is: If the Creator is whole, then hasn’t He created evolution in a perfect way from the start? But that can’t be, since there also has to be a reality in the created being. This reality is opposite from the Creator, and so it has to be incorporated of two opposite parts: the attribute of the Creator and the attribute of the created being. The two attributes have to grow in creation and within it face one another; it’s in the middle between the two attributes, building itself of the two forces: the force of bestowal and the force of receiving.

This means that if we don’t understand the goal, we definitely won’t be able to justify creation and will find different justifications, such as: The Creator who is whole is disappointed with us, left us, and is found somewhere in His wholeness. Other versions are that the Creator is not found in these two forces at all, the good force and the evil force, or that there may be many good forces and many evil forces, etc.

One way or the other, it’s clearly impossible to justify what is going on unless a person receives the Torah, which means, unless he reaches the state that he understands that he is in a corrupt system and that it’s that way so that he will become part of it, will correct it by the Light as he draws himself each time more towards operating the system. Then he discovers that everything was created for him and it was impossible to reach the level of the Creator without first correcting the system, or to be more accurate, to install it. In the same way children build themselves through games by collecting and putting their toys together, it’s the same in our work, in the connection of the parts. So we have to play games of connection, unity, and mutual guarantee in order to understand the goal.
[101574]
From the 4^th part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Question: There are people who we like more than others; there are friends and enemies. Is it possible to maintain good relationships with everybody in the group?

Answer: First of all, you should uncover corrupt relationships among you. Let’s say, I don’t like someone. I can’t stand him without any idea of why I don’t like him. There is something in him that repels me and I can’t do anything about it. My hatred pours over the edges and I literally “spread poison.”

So, people around should “inadvertently” say good things about this person to me. All of a sudden I hear: “You know, I saw him recently and he told me what a great thing he accomplished! It’s wonderful!”

At first, I will be shocked, but later on under the influence of the common opinion, my evaluation criteria will change. It’s inevitable since those people who I admire and respect relate to him in a good way. Gradually, I start valuing this person and being very polite with him without any traces of hatred.

Let’s pay attention to how our relationship develops. Though we won’t become the best of friends immediately, it’s possible that at least my bias towards this person will change to a cautious and distant respect. My prior attitude to him sharply and strongly “manifests” in me. It changes to a positive approach, thus helping me cope with my prior negative feelings. It happens naturally. My attitude to this person transforms against my will.
[101386]
From KabTV’s “Staffing Secrets” 2/8/13

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Everything that happens is for our benefit. All the concealments, judgments, and problems arising show us those places in which we need to put efforts at this time, at this step, in order to advance. Therefore, first of all, we should try to obtain a correct view of the entire reality.

Everything that we see in front of us are our own faults, our inner world, that result in this picture of the world. That is why we see only negative around us. If you want to use every revelation correctly, you must rise above every state by faith above reason to try to see a perfect picture, the world of Infinity, through this earthly reality that is visible to our eyes.

If you cancel your negative attitude towards reality and approach it positively, then instead of the picture that you see now, you will see the Light clothed in desires.

The main thing is to justify the states through which you pass, understanding that they are given to you so that you would overcome them and decide that they are sent by the Creator with the best intentions so that, through them, you would change your attitude. Nothing needs to be changed but the attitude. A change in attitude, that is, intention, changes the whole reality.
[101953]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/13

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Question: We often speak about the other; what is the desire to receive of the other?

Answer: All of reality that you can imagine is all about the other; in other words, it is everything that is outside the “self.” We should understand that the “self” is merely a spark and that’s all. Everything else is restricted and unimportant. You may eat, drink, and enjoy life, but only in order to sustain yourself. Everything is determined by one’s intention.

You must see yourself as a spark. Everything else is the animal level and you should provide what it needs, but all your attention should be aimed outwards, towards what is external to the spark. There, outside yourself, is your desire, your spiritual vessel, everything that you can only imagine: all of the still nature, the vegetative, the animal and the speaking levels.

You can manage automatically with the first three levels of your external desires (the still, vegetative, and animate levels) since there is no resistance on their part. But we have trouble with human nature since, in it, you see yourself, your essence, what you are. It’s like the atlas of your inner spiritual anatomy with all its components. Everything is in there, and still, it’s your desire, and so you should work with it.

It doesn’t mean that you have to correct others. Simply by worrying about them, you discover that they belong to you. This is why we disseminate. It’s as if you want to reach the others, to pass on the method of correction to them, but in order to get close to them you have to understand and to feel that it is your own “self.” Then, by really feeling yourself in them, you begin to understand what is written in the books of Kabbalists.
[101866]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Correction is possible by great sufferings that cannot even be described since it requires the full recognition of evil in each individual property in order to refuse to receive in each one and to move on to the path of bestowal. This path is impossible since a person cannot bear such sufferings.

Therefore, the advancement is usually somewhere in the middle, between the path of sufferings and the path of the Torah (the path of the Light), between “I shall hasten it” and “in its time,” along what is called “Derech Eretz (the path of earth).” A person advances as he is pushed from behind by the sufferings or drawn forward by the Light. He cannot be on the same path all the time.

It’s impossible to move to the path of the Torah from the beginning, unconditionally, but to the extent that we try to do it—especially by actually building the Shechina, which means by building the connection between us in mutual bestowal, according to our exertion and our responsibility for others—then, to that extent, we leave the path of suffering and advance towards the goal along “Derech Eretz,” along the middle road.

It isn’t that the “middle line” is better for our spiritual ascent, but the “middle road” is a compromise between the two roads on which we should remain. The only choice is to strengthen our society so that it will influence everyone. We should see the friends as the area where the Creator will be revealed, the attribute of bestowal. Thus I see my soul and not myself.

A person can check himself and his advancement according to how he worries about the friends and the group so that the revelation will take place in them, like a mother who worries about her babies. Then one can be sure that he understands what advancement means, that he knows what to add to it, and that he can actually fulfill this in this world now and bring his intention to wholeness.
[101859]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13

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Question: If we draw a picture of a bright future, we seem to realize it, don’t we? As they say, “You want to be happy, be happy.”

Answer: In general, it is true because thoughts work. If we cultivate positive thoughts, then naturally we will create the positive field in the integral circles and everywhere else and will generate the positive forces of nature.

On the other hand, the field will also educate us. That is why it is desirable to be in a good mood all the time with good support, and then a relatively easy life is guaranteed.

We are in the absolute of nature and all sorts of data flow inside of us, which we perceive as the flow of life. That is why, if we perceive the same data flowing through us now, differently, life will seem quite different. It turns out that we ourselves regulate the quality of our life: what it is, good or bad, purposeful or meaningless.

You cannot imagine how much we affect each other! Even if a person does not go outside, he still affects others! It is the same unified field!
[101836]
From KabTV’s “Professional Secrets” 2/10/13

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