Question: How can I try to feel others, if I only feel myself?

Answer: If a person discovers that he only feels himself, then that is already a big achievement. Now he has to only understand that with this feeling of himself he will always remain in this world. This perception is called this world.

If a person understands that, then that is already the achievement. When we discover that we only feel ourselves and via that we perceive the rest of what is within us, then that is called the feeling of this world. This is already not a simple state.

Now I need to listen to what is written in the books of Kabbalah, which claim that the spiritual world is found beyond this feeling, external to myself, in others, and think about how to feel others instead of myself.

Everything felt by me now exists only within me and not in reality. Externally are only images, pictures that are depicted in me. And the question that stands before me now is “How can I exit myself? “

For this I am given friends, the group, so that through mutual activities, we will stimulate the Light that will help us exit ourselves outwards to them. This is called the transition outside our “selfish interests.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/12, Shamati #47

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Presently, I am in a fragmented reality that is divided into two parts: my “I” and the external world. This separation explains exactly what Kabbalists wanted to tell us: “You have a chance to connect these two parts, internal and external, together into one entity. You have to do it; this is the program of creation. If you participate in reconnecting them, you’ll perceive the internal reality in which you were before the shattering occurred.”

Kabbalists tell us about the group, dissemination, and the significance of bowing our heads before our friends. The group is nothing but “externality” to us, but it’s already at the human (Adam) level. Those who have a point in the heart, the urge to become similar to the Creator, belong to this level. So, the Kabbalists tell us: “In your reality, there are people who are similar to you and who also strive to unite. They are special selected parts of your soul. One way or the other, everything is a part of your soul. So, you should use these parts, since they are designed to help you; they come to meet you.”

From there, I begin to understand what’s written in the articles that speak of the group, unity, the need to bow one’s head before the group, and of the relationships among friends. All of the above describes the auxiliary force, which stands out from this world, the one that is detached from our other parts that are spread throughout the Universe. The whole Universe is just me; it’s my current sensation. Even things that I can’t feel at this time are still me. It simply means that I haven’t collected the whole range of sensations within myself yet and that my perception of reality is not deep enough as of now.

So, at the highest (speaking) level, there are certain parts that really are helping me, since they encompass the same aspiration as I do. As a result if I happen to unite with them, I correct all other parts of my soul.

Where do I start? I begin with the most sensitive and developed part that is next to me, humankind. It’s still about one’s integrated soul, which we lead towards correction. If one regards everything from this angle, looks deeper, and realizes what Kabbalists write about, then one begins to better understand their texts, their world outlook, and the way they perceived reality and the whole process.

The main thing is to break the “ice” and “dissolve” the common routine self-perception as well as the way we regard the world. We should keep in mind that everything that exists is only our “I”, and that any externality in fact is still inside us. Everything is a picture that we imagine at a certain point in time. Although, we are also given a chance to realize and sense that another approach to this issue is also possible. In his  “Preface to The Book of Zohar” (Item 34), Baal HaSulam writes: …Even though we see everything as actually being in front of us, every reasonable person knows for certain that all that we see is only within our own brains. So are the souls: Although they see all the images in the Giver, they still have no doubt that all these are only in their own interior, and not at all in the Giver.

Another question is what level of “common sense” do we need for that? Of course, it’s not that easy and is not available to everybody. However, if we get ourselves acquainted with psychologists’ and quantum physicists’ opinion, we would discover that their understanding of reality is very similar. Baal HaSulam very much respected materialistic psychology since it’s built on common empiric sense: “A person can be governed only by what one sees.” Psychologists are still partially confused with their hypothesis, whereas physicists talk about these things very seriously: everything is within a person.

So, we have to overcome a gap in our perception. If we constantly apply effort, not physically but rather internally, in order to connect these two parts, internal and external, together, we’ll elicit the Reforming Light and correct our corrupt vessels. The vessel is damaged only inside of our perception, nowhere else. It splits the entire picture and shows some of my vessels as being outside, and the other part as inside. All this is only in our perception.

In order get a correct understanding of the above, we read the articles and letters written by Kabbalists. If we try to understand them from this point of view, they are not what they appear to us in the ordinary psychological approach. They open up much greater depth and clarity, and we’ll feel what Kabbalists had in mind. Because they see the world as a complete entity, united, for them it is concentrated in the point of unity that a person has to attain. They have no question about the need to unite into one group, nor why the “drop of unity” has to be everybody’s goal.

So, together with us now in selected parts of humanity are those who aspire to unite together. If we all think about it and wish to reveal unity, it will happen. In principle, it is sufficient for it to be ten people, and we are much more.

And again, our unity has to be built on the basis of equality. It’s said: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Equality will allow us to form a center of unity, the central point of Malchut.
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From the North Convention of Unity 9/20/12, Lesson 2

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The world of Atzilut expands the vessels. If at first I only had a small discernment. a point, one Sefira, then in the world of Atzilut a whole Partzuf of ten Sefirot is created instead of the one Sefira. This means that we can already separate all the attributes much more than before.

If before I could hardly see the difference between two attributes, since there was one point, now the whole point grows ten times larger and it includes different discernments that are interconnected.

So the world of Atzilut allows me to clarify things and to perform corrections of the world of Nikudim. In the world of Nikudim there are only points—a black point of Malchut that was incorporated in all the Sefirot. Here, however, in the world of Atzilut we don’t work with the same Malchut that is simply incorporated in all the other Sefirot as a black point, but with Malchut that includes the first nine Sefirot and is also included in them.

Thus the common attributes of the first nine Sefirot are created with regard to Malchut, and we can see these on the background of those. Thanks to that, we are able to choose, to clarify, and to understand what is going on.

It is like getting closer to an object, which at first I see as a point. The closer I get, the more I begin to see in a fuller scale what goes on there. Thus a small point on the map can grow into a whole city.

This is exactly how the world of Atzilut operates by helping us see every phenomenon on a large scale.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: The external world around us is reflected in our heads in the form of a certain cognitive structure. This structure, which was formed with the help of our five senses, does not correspond to the true picture of the world. Hence, the internal image of this realm within our brains is quite distorted. When the knowledge is being transferred, it has to be verbalized either orally or in writing. Strangely enough, when we describe an N-dimensional model, we still define it as a one-dimensional space; it means that we allow multiple misrepresentations.

Some time ago, Aristotle mentioned that “the one who tries to put one’s knowledge in writing is unwise, so is the one who later on hopes to find it intact and thinks that it is ready for further use.” Why has nature created such a weird and complicated way to visualize a real picture of the world? Why in order to transfer knowledge are we using a tool that is so “defective”?

Answer: Everything that nature does is perfect, although we use our trivial, tiny potentials to take advantage of it at our current low egoistic level, like a monkey playing with a computer. We will never comprehend the world that exists outside of us if we don’t acquire qualities similar to it. Aristotle and Plato clearly understood this fact and described it in their works. They thought that the direction would develop egoistically (as in our time, modern science), for its own goal.

Thousands of years of evolution that were flowing in this direction led us to a deadlock and made us finally realize that we are simple little creatures who think of themselves too highly because of our narrow-mindedness; at this time, we have to turn the wheel in a new direction. However, not too many people understand it! There are very few special individuals who not only clearly recognize that we have been trapped into a deadlock, but they also know that our further development can happen only through profound changes in human beings.

A man is the lowest developmental stage of nature, not the highest one. This is a problem. The only thing that the lowest level of nature can do is start climbing back up.

To the extent of our ascent, meaning the modification of our properties from egoistic to altruistic, from linear and individual to global and integral, we will acquire new tools for analysis, synthesis, and conceptions. Then, we will create new devices, an innovative cognitive apparatus, and a novel language.

Thus, everything will be subject to changes. It’s as if we are being born anew internally by perfecting ourselves. Both components of which we are comprised (desires and intellect) will also change. The major difference between them is that the desires are original, whereas the intellect is ancillary.

So, if we intend to explain to a person what the world is that he lives in and what “externality” is, we have to change him; otherwise he won’t understand us at all. He will be on the same wave with the egoists who describe the world using a “square” system that is similar to them, not more than that. None of them realize what the authentic realm in fact is, nor do they feel it whatsoever.

Only the deadlock that we are in at this time can “shake and sober” us; it can force us to think in quite a different way by triggering tremendous sufferings. Instead of changing the world around us, we will have to change internally. We will stop considering everything around us as “damaged,” but rather will re-direct any modifications inward. Only through our internal changes can we alter the society. When the society (us included) starts changing, everything there is (inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature) will be exposed to us as a new upper world.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World: Formula of an Integral Society” 7/3/12

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The Book of Zohar is all about the revelation of the Creator to the created beings. Who is the Creator? It is the upper Sefirot in which the simple upper Light is dressed, and through the Sefirot we, who are in Malchut, are impressed by them in different ways. This impression leads to the expansion of Malchut and then there is a desire, and it is impressed by them.

We in this world are a very distant result of these processes that take place on a higher level. But we are also impressed by the upper Light, which is dressed in the desire. I just feel this desire in the form of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and people. I see it through this picture. It is only the Light that operates in the vessel, in the desire. But I was allowed to see its appearance like a theatrical performance, like a picture, a play that appears before me, but in fact, we did not need to see anything. Why do I need to see if I don’t have the right desire, I don’t have a Masach (screen), and I am not compatible to the upper world in any way?

In our world we see things in a similar manner: If I take off my glasses, I don’t see anything, if I put on different glasses, I see ten meters ahead, and if I put on another pair, I see a hundred meters ahead. This means that we perceive everything in accordance to what is external to me and what is inside me. There must be some adaptor, since the main law of nature when two parts connect is the law of equivalence of form. If there are two things, then to the extent that they have something in common they can be in contact, in mutual bestowal, impressed by each other. There must be an equivalence of form because otherwise they cannot perceive one another.

I am only in the desire to receive. And there is the upper Light. The desire to receive isn’t meant to receive anything from the upper Light or to feel its influence; it is only detached from it. It had to be. We don’t even feel the darkness. But a kind of theater show is created, some false picture, an illusion called “this world,” the innermost sphere of all the spiritual spheres. In this sphere the desire to receive is detached from spirituality, detached from the Light, detached from the darkness, detached from everything, and feels that it exists. This is the state we are in now, since it is a replica of the spiritual world. So we were given a game: We try and try, and as a result we eventually reach spirituality. Why? Our efforts are worthless, except for the fact that we try. I have to invest powers and then in contrast to my powers I summon upon myself the Light that Reforms from a distance.

Our world is actually not connected to spirituality in any way. Therefore, all our advancement is when we are not in contact with it, and when we don’t understand anything. What should we do? Do what Kabbalists tell you to summon the Light that Reforms. If you draw it upon you, it will help you. If you don’t, it won’t help you. You will never summon it mentally. It is only possible if you subdue yourself before the group and make it your environment. From all this area called “this world,” you were given a group. If you work with it correctly, you will exit this sphere and enter the upper world, otherwise it won’t happen.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/09/12, The Zohar

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Not everyone can go through the first stages of preparation for the spiritual path and hold on to it. Many leave the group, the spiritual path, and the process of changing oneself. They go back to the external world and return to the life of the landlords by stopping the development of the point in the heart, which makes them the guests of the Creator—the Host of the Universe.

As we know “the opinion of the Torah is opposite from the opinion of the landlords.” If a person holds the opinion of the Torah, he feels that he is a guest and the Creator is the host. Therefore he wants to change himself in order to resemble the host.

This is called having the opinion of the Torah, placing the goal before him in order to be in bestowal and accordingly determine his states.

The first states, the ascents and descents we go through, are disconnected from our ordinary mind and feelings. A person sees that he changes completely. For the first time he begins to feel that some foreign dominion manages him. This uniqueness is typical of the changes that we feel in the process of our inner spiritual development.

Suddenly a person feels that he is under the control of some strange force. Before, he never had this feeling in his ordinary life. He always saw clearly whoever wanted to dominate him, which means that they were external forces. Here, however, for the first time he feels that some force descends and takes him over, ties him from the inside and controls him.

It is a very special feeling. I remember the wonder I felt when I first felt this. It is a very unpleasant and incomprehensible feeling until a person begins to get used to it and to acknowledge this action as the Creator’s work on him. Then he is already prepared to determine that this is so and to agree to it. Then he begins to evoke this feeling by himself and to expect it as you expect a meeting and a connection with someone you love.

He begins to value the Creator’s work on him and to expect that it should happen any minute. He appreciates the actual actions of the Creator and not their quality and how they are felt in his egoistic desire, which is not corrected yet. This means that he doesn’t care which states he goes through; what’s important is that the Creator should operate on him as much as possible.

This is what he prays for. He asks to go through as many changes as possible according to the Creator’s desire, since everything that the Creator does is for the good. Thus, his self-sacrifice is measured to the extent that he identifies with the Creator’s actions and expects them, of his voluntary slavery to the Creator, and the power of his prayer.

For the time being these are only the first stages of the spiritual work. Then the more controlled mutual work with the Creator begins, in mutual bestowal. A person already knows how to receive the powers for that and how to later work with them, how to start a dialogue with the Creator. Then he begins to work even with his desire to receive, by feeling the same tastes as the host and by feeling how the Creator tastes the refreshments and how he tastes it himself.

This whole path begins from the initial ascents and descents in which a person gets used to the domination of a foreign force over him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/12, Shamati #21 

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Question: How does a Kabbalist who is in the spiritual world feel time?

Answer: Time doesn’t exist for a Kabbalist. Even for an ordinary person time is a conditioned perception. Time is a feeling in the egoistic desire that draws the axis of time from one point in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

The more distant you are from the world of Ein Sof, the more distant you are from the zero point of time. The deeper you sink into the desire to receive, the lower you descend down the ladder of the worlds and the more you stretch time. This means that the number of actions you have to perform in order to reach the point of Ein Sof stabilize the concept of time for you.

In your current state, you don’t make such calculations of the number of actions you perform. It is unclear and hidden from you since the vessel and the Light do not operate in you according to your desire. If the process isn’t according to your desire, it is concealed from you.

But the moment you begin to manage it yourself, you will understand what you are doing and then you will manage time. This is why it says: “Israel is above the stars and the constellations,” above the concept of time in its yearning Yashar—El (straight to the Creator).

In the meantime, however, you are not in this state, but under the domination of your ego, and so you don’t determine time, but it is time that determines your fate. So sometimes it seems that the day passes quickly, like one moment and sometimes each moment “lingers” for so long that it is hard to wait for it to end.

This is especially felt during the study. Notice that sometimes during the study of the The Study of the Ten Sefirot you fall asleep at a beginning of a word and wake up at its end and it seems like eternity. You wanted to sleep so much, which means that this time is so dear to you that it is very important for you to disconnect and to nap even for a moment.

The minimal distance that we keep on the road is stretched into a very long one because of our ego and according to how much you enjoy it. It is like Faust said: “Stop, Moment! You are so lovely!’”

In fact, a big strong ego stops time, just as Pharaoh wanted, so that even the corporeal body will be eternal, and so he was embalmed.

So unless we begin to control our desire, time will control us by slowing down or accelerating. In order to rise above time, we have to control our desire to receive. Time, motion, and location are the three parameters by which the desire to receive is revealed to us and by which it controls us.
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From a Talk about Inner Work 9/30/12

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Every time we begin to study from the books of Kabbalists and especially The Book of Zohar we must first of all be grateful for the state we were rewarded with. We are lucky to study about the attribute of bestowal, about the world of bestowal, and to connect to the source of power that can raise us above the animate level to the level of the speaking. Then we will be in bestowal and will love others and the Creator.

This means that we must value the “tool,” the means, that we have now—the special book, which by reading I determine my connection with the upper world. If I value it, if I am attracted upwards and feel awe, then by reading it I can perform different actions on myself. It isn’t just in order to change, but in order to become compatible to what is external to me.

It seems that there is a big world around me and as for now it is true, but later I discover that it is all built of vessels, of my desires. I will perceive them as parts of my body and by that will establish my attitude towards the upper force that created me and I will adhere to it.

The book should provide me with all that. So, I have to value the giant system that is around me. A Kabbalah book, just like a guide, helps me become familiar with the reality I am in, and tells me how to use it in order to get to know the upper force and to adhere to it.

First we have to value the new perspective that is revealed to us. Then accordingly we can turn to the upper force with a request, since the goal is so sublime, great and wonderful, that I surely want to attain it.

Then I begin to operate my desire, to receive or to bestow, according to how much I clarify it. In order to clarify the desire correctly several conditions must be filled:

1. I acknowledge the greatness of the source.
2. When I see that it is great, I want it to influence me correctly. After all, this force can be the “elixir of life” or the “potion of death”—it all depends on my attitude and on what I want from it. In order to establish the right attitude towards it, I was given a group. If I try to reach a “prayer of many” together with the friends, our demand will be right and we will be rewarded with the “elixir of life.” A person cannot know if he is asking for the right thing by himself, and so I was given a tool called “friends,” thanks to which I can undoubtedly turn to the upper force correctly and ask for the right things.

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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/12, The Zohar

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Question: It isn’t enough just to know that everything comes to me from the Creator. After all, in such a case, I may be enjoying this “picture,” without asking any questions. On the other hand, if I have a question, I overcome all the obstacles since I look for an answer.

Answer: That’s right. A person must check himself constantly.

Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article, “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator”: One prays and gives charity for one’s troubles, but is not answered whatsoever…

A person checks himself and sees that he doesn’t succeed in anything. However, he is still connected to the Creator since otherwise he wouldn’t pray to Him and give charity.

And precisely when one stops praying for one’s troubles, one is answered. Whenever he overcomes, believes in Providence, and betters his deeds, luck turns away from him and he mercilessly falls back.

A person can make serious inquiries, try to do everything the right way, and see the opposite results. This state is called “double concealment.”

And when he denies and begins to worsen his deeds, he becomes very successful and is greatly relieved. One does not find one’s sustenance in proper manners.

A person can advance in devious ways and be around successful criminals. Then, the good environment seems like a poor, stupid, deprived environment.

When Providence arranges things in this manner for a person, it is called “concealment within concealment.”

However, he understands this and is aware of what is going on. So, after all the inquiries and the attempts, a person, himself, determines clearly and accurately which concealment he is in with regard to the Creator: whether it is a single concealment or a double concealment.

We must do that every minute and in every situation. It is possible. Baal HaSulam gives us clear instructions as to how to arrive to the real state, to the real connection with the Creator.

When Providence arranges things in this manner for a person, it is called “concealment within concealment.” This is because then one collapses under one’s weight and cannot continue to strengthen the belief that one’s pains come from the Creator for some hidden reason. Finally, one fails, becomes heretic, and says that the Creator is not watching over His creations whatsoever.

This isn’t even double concealment since the Creator is totally absent from the picture of the world.

And all that transpires, transpires by fate and by blind nature. This is not seeing even the back.

Therefore, the moment I wake up, I immediately begin to check myself and the state I am in. Clearly, one can say a couple of blessings automatically or sing a song, but, on the whole, the scale should not be the tunes or the blessings other people have composed, but my own.

Thus, I gradually understand that, eventually, everything depends on the influence of the environment. Then, I discover that I must submit myself to the environment because this is what pulls me forward through the double concealment and the single concealment toward the revelation of the Creator. Only self-submission before the group brings me the Light that Reforms.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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No matter what happens in my life, I must understand that it all comes from the upper force that undoubtedly controls everything. But so far it isn’t revealed to me that way, but in concealment, and so I suffer.
The Creator is good and benevolent, but He is revealed to me after going through a “filter” that turns all the good into something bad and unpleasant. I call the thickness of this “filter” “single concealment.” In addition, the Creator can place another “filter” and send me to a “double concealment,” which is much worse.

So how can I get rid of the veil that turns the goodness of the Creator into evil? To do this I ask: “Correct me! But not so that I will get rid of the unpleasant feelings, on the contrary, they help me, and spur me. Without them I wouldn’t even think about something else. They focus me on You, on the source of something that seems bad. Therefore, I am asking for help in order not to feel that something bad stems from You.

I don’t want to be behind the “filter,” but in front of it, in direct contact with you. Not in order to feel good, but in order to know you better. I want to bless you, but now because I have no choice, I curse you. My body screams because of that; “I feel bad and I curse the source of evil. But You gave me the feeling that the evil stems from You. You are playing with me by using hints, half revealed and half concealed. But I don’t want to curse You anymore.”

Question: Where is the group here? I can also ask for all that without the group.

Answer: Try. If you start, you will be confused and you will discover that the true plea is only possible in the group. There you are protected from making mistakes; there you really turn to the Creator for correction despite your good and evil desires. Eventually the group allows you to see clearly what to ask for, what it is that you actually want and whom it is that you actually turn to. That’s the whole idea.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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