Question: You have defined the modern world order in the following way: “The lack of mutual participation has led us to the loss of a point of reference.” Is this the final outcome?

Answer: This simply is the consequence of our inability to use the two forces: bestowal and reception (which is referred to as lack of mutual participation). This leads to the loss of a point of reference, and we do not understand where we are. The lack of mutual participation means that the force of reception and the force of bestowal within me are not balanced, and this is why I am not able to compromise with anyone.

I do not understand where I am because of my inner lack of balance. This is because I see through my channels of perception, and when they are crooked and not balanced, I see a crooked world and do not understand what is happening with it.

This is obvious in government officials, economists, and bankers who are not able to find the way for our world. And they will not find it! They will do whatever they can to stretch things out and postpone the end as much as possible. In this way, they will keep dropping us into even worse states until millions of people come into the streets and start trouble to the point of a world war, epidemics, and natural cataclysms.

This is about the world of forces, and we possess the highest force in all of nature. As we bring the forces inside us into balance on the human level, the highest level of the entire system, we bring into balance the entire universe, on all the other levels of nature: the animate, vegetative, and still.

This is because we are on the highest degree in power and comprehension. We have the ability to establish balance among the most delicate forces that exist in nature: the power of thought. All the other forces are lower than the power of thought. These are very corporeal forces activated by the power of thought.

This power is not the power of our thoughts, but the thought contained in nature, the common program, the engine that works and spins everything.

So, we are at a special point of our development. Until now, nature was fully ruled over us, and it has brought us to the lowest point of our development. Now, we must rise on our own and acquire the force contained in nature: the force of balance between good and evil, between egoism and the desire to bestow, between the force of reception and the force of bestowal.

If we manage to acquire this instrument that will help us combine these two forces, we will gain power over all of nature before us. After all, we and nature are in the same system, and we are becoming an active element in it, a live, moving, and developing element that gives life force to this entire system.

We can call this force the Light that enlivens this entire system. So it follows that you bring this entire system to life.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11

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The Creator, nature, is everything, and we exist within it. However, because of the concealment that was made for us, we have the ability to see ourselves and nature in a very strange way, as if we exist independently from it and are able to decide and act on our own.

It is a complete illusion. Both we and the world, all of our actions, thoughts, and opinions, all of it is a total fantasy, the mirage in the air. All of this was done to give a person a beginning point from which he would be able to advance truly independently. Otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to build the foundation for being “human,” Adam, which means “similar” to nature, the Creator, in all its height.

But if we want to grow correctly, we need to constantly remember that we exist within nature that determines everything for us: the thoughts, the desires, the intentions, relations between us, everything that happens—all our lives. Nature controls us completely, and we are not only governed by it, but don’t even exist.

We live in this lie, in the illusion that we seemingly exist, like in a dream or some kind of legend. However, if we try to focus our attention, thoughts, and perception in order to rise above our ego, above our present nature, where all of this dream and fantasy is, then indeed, we will be able to try to break through this dream and reach the truth.

This is why we act: We gather in the group, study, and implement all the recommendations of Kabbalists. Indeed, they want to pull us out from this illusory existence, from the life in a dream, as though withdraw from the fog, from the deep hole that we are stuck in, and to save us. Thus they give us various advice on how we need to concentrate on perception of reality in order to dissipate the cloud and see the truth. This is what our entire work is about.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/2012, Shamati #9

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Question: What does the ability to “feel the world through everyone” mean?

Answer: If I am included in others, if I feel what they feel and think what they think, then obviously, I possess capabilities several times greater than an average person. I am much broader, I am able to include more within myself. After all, our perception of any phenomenon depends on the number of parameters that we’re capable of grasping, on the resolution of our view.

The number of parameters depends on the quantity of opposing things that are included in me. Due to the contrast between them, I distinguish the individual parts and can build out of them, like out of construction blocks, many options. At the same time, I understand what these constructions are composed of and how they differ from one another.

And if the feelings and reason received from others are absorbed by me, I become the owner of different and opposing properties. Then I perceive the world in a more multifaceted way, and relative to the previous planar perception, this seems like an entry into a new dimension.

Psychologically, this is a completely new perception, a new world. Through this I rise above the limitations of the body, associated with the categories of time, movement, and space since I am included into humanity. I acquire its shared feeling, its acting mind—the data that comes to us from nature.

I receive an opportunity to attain the feeling and the mind inherent in nature, which exist within it as my root. All development in this world proceeds from there. In this development I see that I return to that place, to that root of feeling and mind within nature from which the entire chain of creation evolved: the still, vegetative, animate, and me—a human being who reaches the root and thereby completes the circle of development.

I want to emphasize that it is no accident that nature is pushing us to a state of mutual guarantee so that we will literally lose our individual properties. We don’t really lose them but only rise above them because they are corporeal, pertaining to the animate level.

Everything individual within me relates to caring for the body so that it will live through its allotted time in the best way possible. But development consists of us rising above the concern for the body to a common concern. This common concern endows us with completely different properties, not the bodily ones. Thanks to them, I reveal the program and purpose of creation, the intention of nature in which not a single element develops by chance—everything advances according to a program. And I can attain and understand this program.

And as soon as I direct myself towards an integral vision, connecting with other people, I immediately begin to grasp this integral vision, exchange my “glasses” for round, integral ones. I see the entirety of nature and don’t just receive from it a narrow channel relative to my own body, of whatever carries benefit or harm for me: food, sleep, entertainment, and so on. No, I don’t live by this! I live on a level independent of my body and already look at nature that is above bodies. It’s as if I am no longer inside a body: I judge, check, and control from the universal human mind and feeling. This stage fundamentally differs from the current one.

Right now I am merely an advanced animal, within certain boundaries, and it’s unclear if this advancement is in a good or a bad direction. But due to inclusion into the global mind, I achieve a new dimension. I qualitatively change my perception of the world in which I find myself. It becomes genuine since I no longer view it through a narrow egoistic slit, pulling to me whatever is beneficial and brushing away the harmful; rather, I literally come out through it and live in the world. And there, perception is completely different, not through an egoistic sieve through which I see only whatever is useful or harmful to me, but independently of myself altogether. This is what the new dimension inherent in man is.

And then I really reveal the mind and the feeling that exist there, within the bright state outside of my body, behind the wall with a narrow slit through which I peek. I understand the entire process and purpose of creation.

Our research shows that this is truly so, that this is something elusive and imperceptible to us. But we are already starting to realize that evidently, this level does exist. It can be compared to dark matter: It exists, but we don’t perceive it, even though it comprises 90% of all matter in the Universe.

Similarly, we cannot yet reveal the common feeling and mind that exist in the Universe. However, scientists who study the cosmos talk about the presence of a powerful feeling and mind there, like sounds that we cannot pick up on, hearing only some kind of noise. We cannot reveal these phenomena because they belong to a dimension above us.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Studying the science of Kabbalah with the altruistic intention, the people of Israel must prepare themselves and all inhabitants of the world, until they evolve in order to take on this high work of love for others, which is the ladder towards the goal of creation, adhesion with the Creator.

This depends not on us, but on the root of the soul. On one hand, we are huge egoists with a coarse and ruthless desire, and that is why we are corrected in the last generation; on the other hand, we are characterized by the finest phenomenon, the purest Reshimot (informational genes), and hence we belong to the head of the last generation.

This antagonism, this contradiction takes in us extreme forms, compared with all other generations. Relative to us, it was easy for them to reveal the Creator, to attain bestowal and unity. They had an affinity for and understood this; it did not trigger so many rejections and disturbances. Perhaps, they experienced more material problems, but fewer spiritual obstacles.

Besides that, we have no alternative; we have not chosen our task. Anyway, in order to guide the world, to understand it completely, and lead all its inhabitants toward the goal of creation, we must know the whole system of the universe, the entire program of the Creator, and be able to realize it with all the souls that will be opened now and after us.

Until now, there was no correction in the true sense of this word. Everything was limited by the vessels of HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat) and HGT (Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet), which belong to Bina, bestowal. They were broken and corrected only in order to sustain the wholeness of the Partzuf, the force of bestowal. But where does this force act and what does it correct? It acts and performs corrections in the vessels of NHY (Netzach, Hod, Yesod) whose turn comes today.

Thus, we in fact belong to the most powerful, the worst and simultaneously the best part. So, it is not easy. Our path and analysis requires such efforts that are immeasurably greater than the efforts of our predecessors and successors.

However, it is said: “For the suffering, reward.” And this reward is an understanding, feeling, and attainment of the fullness of the world. Only we can understand and feel all of the Creator, absorb Him. And thus, we should be proud.

Peace in the world precedes the gathering of the exiles. As long as self-love and egoism prevail among people, the sons of Israel will not be able to serve the Creator in purity. Peace in the world is the only vessel that let us obtain the blessing of the forefathers.

We will reveal the Creator, but a complete picture can be seen only at the end when the whole world follows us and comes to correction. After all, the world is our vessel, and we will have to help the nations become corrected and join us. Only then will we correct the entire vessel, and all the nations will join in the work for the sake of bestowal, in unity.

As the head of this whole system, we will have to work, coming again and again as representatives, responsible managers. The Creator Himself puts us before that, and we should be proud of our unique mission.

No one knows why he has been entrusted with that, what reincarnations he has gone through, and why namely he and not his neighbor was given this role. And therefore, we need to respect all our friends, to love each of them because everyone is my partner in many reincarnations, that is, of corrections that await us. We will be included in a single system and become close to each other. That is why we need to understand more, strive to feel more internally, to be included in each other. Thus altogether, we come to the goal. Baal HaSulam and Rabash write a lot about this in their articles.

We need to see the friends not in their material form, but as various kinds of souls, sparks, points in the heart. It is interesting how the Creator arranges them. We will understand the correct order later, what the system HBD is, designed on the one hand to grasp the entire coarseness of the desire, and on the other hand, to understand what the Creator is and how to work with this vessel, which opens for all its depth.

The general order is following: The Creator is first revealed in us, in the desires of HBD; then, we adapt the purpose of creation for the desire of HGT, and from there, correction comes to the true vessels of NHY.
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From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

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We must realize the importance of spirituality from darkness, from the absence of its perception. Only in response to such a way of relating to it, does the spiritual world appear from the fog and is born from non-existence. It penetrates into my feelings awareness, and understanding; I am holding it and working with it, but only to the extent of its importance to me. Raising this realization of importance, I “pull” it out from the concealment into the light.

All of this is to ensure that my approach would be altruistic. Otherwise, I can never reveal the spiritual world, since I will always keep aspiring towards it with the intention for the sake of receiving, like towards everything in our world.

So how can I realize the importance of something that I do not see? How do I approach the hidden with the intention for the sake of bestowal? For this, the Kabbalists say the environment is needed, a society of friends. When they exalt the importance of something, even though not even one thread may be connecting me to the object of their praises, in any case I begin to value it.

It is the same in our world, what people around me think and talk about, what is important to them, becomes important to me. This happens to such an extent that I suddenly begin to value what I have never seen and felt. And now I start talking about how important and wonderful it is. Looking at me, many wonder: “Where does such an enthusiasm come from?” And I sometimes catch myself in a sudden reverence toward something I have seen on television and something I heard from others… This happens to everyone. Why? It is due to the common opinion. Society considers something important and it passes on to me.

Why is this the way we have to go into the spiritual? Why has advertising become so widespread in the 20th century right before our common spiritual ascent? It is so that we know to what extent we must use the environment.

For decades we have been convinced that the environment is capable of influencing us and through advertising can raise in our eyes things that do not have even the slightest importance. There is nothing in them except for social prestige. What others praise will be important for me as well. We are constantly being manipulated this way; they jack up the price for something, and the public is ready to pay three times the original price. The mass media, sociologists, and political scientists are doing this job very well and they have created a whole industry of artificial importance.

What’s more, we do not suspect that we are also “calibrated” in all of our internal parameters, qualities, and opinions. We have been “adjusted” and “configured” so that we would look at each thing in a certain way. In reality, I see the world with foreign eyes. And there is nothing that can be done here, I have already been “blinded,” I can no longer come out of this formatting. The same brainwashing is being experience by our children as well.

So what have we gone through the whole of this process for; after all, nothing happens by chance?

It is in order to understand that we are completely dependent on the environment and with its help we can raise the importance of anything. Thus, we know how to raise the importance of the spiritual world in our eyes although we do not see or feel it.

Advertisers show me, say, a small bottle of water and they describe it as if it were holy water. So if we were to study this mechanism, we would be able to do the same thing for our spiritual development. After all, nobody knows what the spiritual world is, nobody sees it, whether it is important or not, how important it is, how beneficial it is for us. We only know one thing, if we l attach importance to it in the circle of our environment, then for everyone it will be elevated to the highest place in our scale of priorities. We will absorb this feeling of importance of the spiritual world from “social advertising” and then it will be easy for us to feel it.
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From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 5

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 26, “One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past”: It is written, “The Lord is high and the low will see,” that only the low can see the greatness. The letters Yakar (Precious) are the letters Yakir (will know). It means that one knows the greatness of a thing to the extent that it is precious to one.

One is impressed according to the importance of the thing. The impression brings one to a sensation in the heart, and according to the measure of one’s recognition of the importance, to that extent joy is born in him.

In order to perceive the reality in which I am located and which I do not yet notice, I need to develop the sensitivity to and perception of it. We do the same thing in other cases as the laws here are unchanging.

Whatever and whoever I may be working with, may it be metal, wood, plastic, people, animals, or plants, I gradually begin to feel the material that I am working with. The more important it is for me, the more I am interested in it and the more I penetrate into its qualities with my perception. Now, even a simple piece of wood can tell me a lot, even though for an outsider it is not noteworthy in any way at all. It’s all in my connection with it, the importance I give it. It’s the same in everything.

A true master is he who values the material with which he works and values his profession, and thanks to it, he sees the full richness of its palette. Before, he used to be like everyone else, but now, having invested the efforts into the acquaintance with the material, he is becoming a specialist and distinguishes the thousands of facets and hues in it.

It is exactly the same in the spiritual. There is only one problem. If in our world we see in advance what we’re dealing with and then we penetrate into all of the finer points, then in the spiritual world, the situation is different. There, I will not get to the “working material” until I develop a special sensing organ. In our world I study what I already see, while in the spiritual world, I first have to develop the sensitivity, and only to that extent do I begin to feel the object in order to study it and to get to know it.

Thus, the realization of the importance precedes everything else. At first we must attach the importance to the spiritual object and only then do we discover it. So why then in our world is this not required? This is because my “approach to the ammunition” is egoistic here; I value what I already see. On the other hand, in the spiritual world, I must first exalt the object in my eyes, attach importance and value to it. To that I extent I get into it with a special relationship, with a sharpened sensitivity. I begin to feel it not from the doorstep, but from behind the door, from a concealed state. And then, when it begins to emerge, I study it and connect to it.
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From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 5

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In the News (from ScienceDaily): “A neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.

“‘[The] experiment found that the realm of the sacred — whether it’s a strong religious belief, a national identity or a code of ethics — is a distinct cognitive process’…The results were published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

“Sacred values prompt greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes, the study showed, as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits. …

“Research participants who reported more active affiliations with organizations, such as churches, sports teams, musical groups and environmental clubs, had stronger brain activity in the same brain regions that correlated to sacred values.”

Comment: Decisions regarding what is correct and incorrect are established by the environment and have a greater weight than individual decisions regarding pleasure and reward. That is why the only way to change oneself is to choose an appropriate environment.
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Kabbalists give me “advice in the dark,” and in the end I’m like a child before a yet unexamined reality.

We give advice to little children in the same way, and they obediently follow the instructions because for now they do not know anything about the given subject and they trust the adults completely. Instinctively, a child believes us, as his nature instructs him to do, he or she follows us, with what we call the “eyes closed.”

We must follow Kabbalists the same way. Of course this causes discomfort; we are grown people, we want to feel and understand. “Wait, what exactly am I doing? Why do I do this and with what purpose? Where is this coming from?” Everyone has many questions and excuses.

It does not matter. If we were children, the upper world would open up before us in no time. But then we would be like “angels” there, not higher than “animals.” But if we wish to attain the degree of the Creator, then we cannot make all our actions and take all our steps through our natural aspirations, we must do it through faith above reason—in other words, against our egoism.

This constitutes all the complications. I am given a certain advice, but I fail to see logic in it because my mind and feelings pertain to this world. I do not see or feel that this is the exact way I need to act.

I am told: “Even if you do not understand it, you need to know that this is the way things are there in the upper world, since there, everything is directed towards bestowal, when here, everything is directed towards reception. There everything is in unity, and here everything is in separation. There everything is eternal, perfect, and aspires towards balance, while here it is the other way around.” But words do not help me. I am still standing on the foundation of this world, and I need to acquire the upper world from here.

Yes it is difficult on one hand, but necessary on the other. I do not need to transition from one world to another; instead, I must live in both worlds in order to be independent in relation to the Creator. It is similar to what the guest says to the host: “I want to be like you. You are a giver and I want to give. You give to me and I want to give to you. I depend on you and I want you to depend on me.” So I also need to be independent standing before the Creator.

We cannot even imagine it: On one had there is none else beside Him, and on the other hand there is something independent. And this state exists only because we assert ourselves in both worlds: I constantly build the upper world above this world. This is why the journey is so difficult. After all, my every action, my every step, must oppose my desire and understanding, everything I know and everything I have gathered and collected over the course of my entire life.

Everything is the other way around. Even when we speak about love and unity, in reality it is not the kind of love and unity we are accustomed to. They lie above our nature. In other words, I must reach a state where I do not seem to exist. It slightly resembles a mother who selflessly gives herself to her child.

But here I need to go to the end in full, limitless unity in relation to the entire world. And this, despite all the obstacles, is when I discover that all the desires to which I must fully give myself, are opposite to me, hate and reject me. As the Aviut (the thickness of desire) grows, I am shown the distance between reception and bestowal, and then I reveal the entire burden concealed in unity.

And all this is to acquire independence at the height of the Creator.

This is why we need to agree with everything we experience. And even though our nature, the nature of this world, rejects all the forms of the spiritual world, we must agree with this. The spiritual form is opposite to me, I hate it and do not accept it, but this is the way things need to be. I must understand and love it; I must prepare myself for it with the help of the group, the environment. This is exactly where we are going: towards this contradiction, to make it desirable so it would serve as proof of the fact that we are advancing towards the truth.
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From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson 7

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Question: Is there any hope that our aspirations and values that we now strive for will be passed to our children and from them to their children? After all, we see that everything is declining.

Answer: Nature will not die, life will go on. We’ll have to live in our current dimension, which we’ll feel as long as we do not complete our correction.

So, don’t worry about the end of the world, what will remain or not remain for our children and grandchildren, and whether this world will exist in a few generations. Our world will cease to exist only when it is no longer needed. That is, when the last people complete their correction, all of humanity that will exist at that moment will simultaneously feel that this is the final correction that closes them together into an ideal global community and allows them to begin to feel the gradual disappearance of this world.

But even earlier, to the degree that a person corrects himself and becomes integral, our world disappears from his sensations. However, it does not “disappear” completely, but only as the world of governance, as the world that has some importance, special purpose, besides the one that allows us to ascend higher.

This world will disappear from our perception only when we complete our correction in it. It doesn’t really exist; it exists in our senses. We desire to reach this state.

Why are we talking about our children and grandchildren? The same awaits them. It’s all perpetual motion, until the final correction.

So there is nothing to fear, there is no need to make plans. We are still little to understand anything about it. Do what you have to do today—it’s the best.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 2/12/2012

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Our reality is one, and everything depends on a person who perceives or reveals it. First we reveal just a small part of reality, this world. Then, as our vessels expand and our sensitivity increases, we feel an increasingly more complex and rich reality, called the Upper World.

How can we rise to the perception of a higher reality? After all, we are always talking not just about it, but about the person who receives, feels, reveals, and attains it. So how can we rise from the level of a regular person to the level of an attaining person?

The difference between the two lies in how sensitive they are to their reality. If we perceive it by means of just the vessels, qualities, and senses that we were born with, then we are living in our world, and we perceive our existence inside of it. If, however, we develop an additional receptivity within us, we will feel “an addition of reality.”

Kabbalists say that we can feel this addition if we begin treating our reality more sensitively, in a special manner. This is a special attitude – essentially, the realization of the importance and respect for the quality of bestowal which exists in the upper reality.

And that means we should care about just one thing: how can we begin to respect the quality of bestowal, how can we raise its importance in our eyes? This is why Kabbalists write articles, books, and letters for us, giving us different exercises and explaining how we should unite so that by virtue of various efforts, the upper reality, meaning the quality of bestowal, will become very important to us.

However, the main objective is not even this, but for us to see importance in the Source of this quality, the Upper Force, the Creator, the Root. When a person attaches importance to the Root, he begins to feel new phenomena. And then he understands what was happening to him before, his history.

It turns out that throughout all of his life, at every moment the Creator built this process for him and a person always properly progressed towards spiritual attainment, toward the development of new sensations. This is the only thing he was doing, although he did not know about it.

And now, in the present point, I have to understand that until this moment, everything was carried out by the Creator, and I have to be grateful to Him for the proper course and the impulses to move forward. But from now on, everything is up to me.

We know that we aspire forward correctly when we actually see that in the past, the Creator constantly pushed us forward in the right direction. And now, at every moment, we are in the state of choice.
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From the Arava Arvut Convention Lesson #5, 2/24/12

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