When we reach the wisdom of Kabbalah through different events in our lives, we think that the spiritual world has an external form, similar to this world’s where there are different objects that have a volume, and that there is motion and time there. This is how a person imagines the spiritual world, based on the impressions he has from this world that he is used to seeing, which is to say, that he is used to feeling. He thinks that he can feel the spiritual world this way.

In studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, we study about the “perception of reality” according to which the entire picture of reality is revealed inside our desire. All the images we see and the feeling of motion, space, time, and volume are all discernments of desire.

A certain desire gives us a feeling of time, another desire gives us a feeling of change, and a third desire gives us the feeling of volume, and so forth. Colors, sounds, height, and width all are different desires or vectors that together depict the world to us, both this world and the spiritual world.

The only difference is that in our world, we imagine that we are among figures that actually exist on the outside while in the spiritual world, we feel and understand that our internal forces are those that create reality inside us. We feel and understand this according to our control over these forces or desires.

If I don’t control the forces of my own desire, then these forces seem external as if they are not under my control. However, if I begin to control them with the help of restriction and Masachim (screens), then as a result of my attempt to control them, I reveal them as internal forces under my control.

Thus, we gradually begin to perceive the world in its true form until even this world that we are used to seeing as external is gradually felt more as an internal world that is inside us. Then, we understand how the writers of The Book of Zohar looked at reality, how they felt reality, and how they convey this to us when they describe it in this world’s words, in Kabbalistic terms, in the language of the Midrash, or morals.

Actually, all they talk about is a person’s internal forces and desires into which the Light brings all the forms and impressions. It is only about how the desires are impressed by the Light.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/12, The Zohar

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Rabash, Letter #42: “Their opinions differ as much as their faces”—so how can they become “like one man with one heart?” The matter is that when everyone cares for himself, it is impossible to be “like one man,” because they are not alike. However, if everyone cancels his own domain (all the egoistic interests of man), and everyone only cares about the Creator’s benefit (everyone’s point in the heart), then they no longer have private opinions, everyone’s separate opinion becomes eliminated, and everyone enters into the domain of the One.

In other words, we can only connect under the condition that everyone cancels himself. But am I really capable of giving something up and doing something with myself in general? We see that we remain as we were.

But we need to begin to connect our points in the heart. This point does not pertain to everyone’s personal universe and all his special qualities, which are different from the qualities of others. The connection between us is only possible through these points in the heart, because they do not belong to us—they are a “Divine particle from the Above” in every one of us! And if we were to connect these points, we would be able to unite through them.

Hence the condition: ascend in faith above reason—it’s the only way to connect. When we connect the points in the heart, we reveal their source—the Creator!

If everyone cancels himself, “his domain,” then our spiritual points reveal the reality where they exist to us—and they exist in the Creator. And we enter Him through them. The moment I cancel myself, my point immediately connects with the points of my friends, and together they take me and bring me inside the Creator.

And then we reveal that instead of existing inside the vessel, inside the desire—we exist inside the Light that fills this vessel! My entire perception flips upside down: I was inside my desire and I thought that this was what I am—everyone on his own, in his domain.

But the moment we cancel ourselves, our points reveal fulfillment to us in the same place, the same state, where we just were. Only, instead of perceiving the vessel—we perceive the Light, which exists inside the vessel.

The change is only in our perception and nothing else. We have gone from perceiving the desire to perceiving the Light. We have canceled our egoism, and started feeling the source of the point in the heart, the Creator, through the points.

These points were merely a little way to hold on to Him while we existed in our domains. And now we have used them to transition into His domain.
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From The Arvut Convention Lesson 2, 11/18/11

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Question: What topics are there in the course “Evolution as Development of Egoism?”

Answer: It encompasses absolutely everything. It will include: culture, communication, family, nationalities, civilizations, and the history of humanity from which one can draw a large amount of data and examples for our life today and for future states.

Knowing about yesterday, I can better understand what is happening today, and then can somewhat effect the future. Personally I am not a fan of history and geography, but we really should know history on the basis of the development of our egoism. It helps us understand how we are developing.

Aside from the courses, “Evolution as Development of Egoism” and “Freedom of Will,” the other courses will have more of a psychological quality. The first one, which lies between these two and a course in psychology, is on the perception of reality, meaning ontology or the theory of knowledge. It examines how we perceive the surrounding world, our five senses, the way this world is reflected within our five senses, and to what extent our perception is a consequence of internal states and properties of a person.

We study whether our perception is objective, and how we can influence it. Can we set such internal parameters for ourselves that would allow us to perceive this world from different angles, from different points of view, as if changing places and dwellings within one another? Say you see the world from one perspective and I from another, and then it’s as if we trade our points of view with each other.

In conversing with someone, we always want that the person to understand us. “Do you understand me? Can you imagine what I’m talking about? Did I express myself correctly?” That is, we are always concerned about proper communication. But it’s never there because we can’t “enter” another person and from within him take a look at the world. Until we can acquire the technique of emotional perception of each other, understand the properties and feelings of another, and see the world through his eyes, we will not understand one another.

The integral connection involves teaching all the people in the world to achieve that inner contact with each other, when one can substitute for another, when it’s as if I move into you and you into me. Then we’ll start to really understand one another.

We see this in a pairing of any two elements in nature. If there exists some element “I” within me, and there is some kind of “you,” then if we want to understand each other we must combine together all of your qualities and all of my qualities, as if mutually overlaying each other. That is, you perceive my qualities and can imagine your life and the world through them, and I through yours.

The same thing happens in technology. A similarity of two elements is required for their joining. And even though they are opposite from one another (say, one is convex and the other concave), still when we combine them, they must completely correspond to each other. That is, they must be adjusted and created in such a way that each has the shape of the other. This is where our correction lies: in this adjustment of fit towards one another.

This topic isn’t merely part of some theoretical course because it provides pure practical conclusions and work on knowing the world. Without it there is no communication. As well, it will be impossible to know the world without seeing it internally through each other. In practice, in our integration with all the people of the world, we must achieve such a state where I can “dwell” inside all the others, feel all of them, and through them perceive the world.

And when I do that in mutuality, as if plugging into them with my aspiration and disposition, I suddenly see a completely different world: multifaceted, amplified seven billion times, and simultaneously unified, that is, one whole while simultaneously composed from an enormous quantity of cells, like a honeycomb, because I look through each and every one. What takes place is an incredible picture of amplification of power for penetration into this world. This is true ontology, the practical theory of knowledge.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Question: What should I cling to during the reading of The Book of Zohar, to the group, the Creator, or Rabbi Shimon?

Answer: There is no Rabbi Shimon, no Creator, no group, no Light—nothing. There is an inner impression of a person who is divided into such terms.

I do not know what exists outside of me. I just know that there is something called “I,” and I do not know what it is. And this “I” is impressed by something. I do not know what impresses it either.

Thus, I am in a certain state called “my reality.” I need to investigate this reality now: Who I am and what do I feel? The science of Kabbalah talks about this: how to reveal this state.

We begin from here. This is called to “grasp the meaning of life.” We are talking not about our life on earth for several decades, but about attaining the very essence of reality in which I and what I feel are namely this presence in my first realization: “I” and “feel.”

The entire science of Kabbalah is intended for a person to reveal the true reality—what happens to you when you get a sense of what it is, what this imaginary world that you see presents, and in general, the entire reality, life and death, good and bad impressions.

Why do they come? In order for you to begin to form yourself: who you are, what you feel, how and so on—until you begin to discover the point of stability from which you will be able to watch and start to organize the whole reality. This is what the science of Kabbalah is.
[65066]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/12, The Zohar

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Question: Behavioral psychology speaks of a so-called “triangle of mutual understanding.” Two of its angles represent communication and empathy, and the third is a shared reality. In the integral upbringing, communication is conducted in a circle. From the point of view of behavioral psychology, it is assumed that in the process of growing mutual understanding, empathy increases too. Now a question arises: Is a shared reality that very integrality?

Answer: We must exist within it. Not inside ourselves, but outside of the self, within this shared reality that we create because this is precisely what objective reality is. Everything that exists inside of me is subjective, that is to say, pure lies. I lie to myself about building my own self. That world is absolutely unreal, invented by me.

Sometimes I am talking to someone and wonder about how differently we perceive the world. I am speaking about one thing, and he sees a completely different picture and talks about something else. And he is absolutely sincere, just like me, because each of us is coming from our own sensations.

Thus, it is necessary to rise higher, into the common desire, the common mind, the common heart and brain, and to observe the world from within the collective image of man that represents the totality of all of us. Then we will see the world as entirely different: not individualized, not distorted by our intrinsic, inner qualities.

If as many people as possible would gather into the common system of “man” (the joint image of man), then naturally, we will see a completely different picture of the world, universe, and ourselves. And it will be enormously different from what we see today. After all, the picture of the world depends on subjective perception, and psychologists know this very well.

We only need to show that if you take your inner desires and properties and compare them to others, that is, to the emerging collective image of man as a single whole, then from within it you will start to observe a truly different world.

You rise above yourself and distance yourself from your body, from your personal qualities so much that the body is no longer important to you. As we see from experience, it is very likely that it will start to be perceived as something foreign, like an animal that exists near you. When you enter that collective image of man, you see your body existing on an animate level. And the generalized image of man belongs to the human level.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Since our relationship towards the world and life will completely change, then all of man’s resources—the mind and the heart, desires and thoughts— besides the bare necessity for the existence of his physical body will be thrown out in order to reach harmony with nature. And then we will fully understand its initial plan, its flow, its highest thought, and we will rise to the same level accordingly, meaning, a level higher than birth and death.

We only need to picture what we are talking about. Since if I get to know the whole of nature, then I get to know such a level of it from where I will be looking at myself like at a small temporary element. However, I am already looking from another level, since I rise higher than myself, so to speak. Here, man finds absolutely clear answers to the questions about the meaning of life, existence.

Naturally, this influences his mentality, behavior, and his cultural, social, and public relations. He sees the world and himself differently. He begins to think not based on temporary, defective points of view: I am here today and tomorrow I am not, so if I won’t be here anymore, what do I do?

We can’t even imagine the huge change that happens inside of us, when we begin to see ourselves existing on the infinite time axis. Then, we perceive our body as an accompanying animal.

Inside of us, such a psychological system begins to develop that changes at the root how we relate to others, to ourselves, and towards the world, and so I already begin to relate towards myself and to others from an eternal position. And this changes me completely, raises me, and makes me a serious, man of the world.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Question: Is the perception of reality a social phenomenon on the level of “person-person”, or can we include the perception of nature here, the still, vegetative, and animate?

Answer: No. First of all, we are concerned only with the human society, about the contact between us.

Naturally, the rest of the parts of nature connect to this process. We automatically include the lower stages in ourselves. There are no problems with this, only if we can correctly connect with the person.

Furthermore, it is necessary to understand that if I depend on the environment, then how do I form it for myself? This is the next course, which considers how I build the surrounding society for myself that would transform me into a particular form. In what company, under which influence should I be in order to obtain my next desirable state, my form, to become a correct element of the integral interaction.

Here, I must think this over: “What am I missing? What, specifically, does my nature consist of? What is my desirable state? In what way does the environment influence me? Which qualities of mine does it influence? Possibly, I have qualities inside of me, which it cannot exert influence on, while it influences some of them selectively. Possibly, in this situation, I have to develop myself further, having placed myself under the influence of the environment. How do I control all of this?”

Meaning that from this course, I must find out who I am and what the environment is. I must go through a large number of clarifications, including the practical ones.

After the end of this course, the practical work begins: How do I constantly change myself towards the desired direction with the help of changing the environment?

Question: All of this is related to ontology, to knowledge?

Answer: All of this interflows between each other.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Baal Hasulam, “The Freedom”: “It can be compared to a sick man who does not wish to obey the doctor’s orders before he understands by himself how that advice would cure him, and therefore begins to study medicine. He could die of his illness before he learns medicine.“

Suppose I live at the end of the world in a hut in some remote village, and there are a couple of other families like me. We spend our time hunting and collecting fruit and we don’t know anything except this kind of life.

But suddenly civilized people from some developed country come to us with all kinds of instruments and tools. For me they are like wizards who came down from the sky.

The question is: Do I have to go through the entire process the way they did, or can I acquire the wisdom, reason, and feeling from them in addition to their technologically advanced products and thereby leap over centuries in my development? Is that possible?

Of course, I can learn how to use their tools. You don’t need brains for that. But we are talking about an inner development that is both emotional and cognitive: Can I try to bridge the gap between us and leap over the centuries that their country and their people have gone through?

Well, it’s possible with the help of the connection among us. Not the apparent external connection, but the true internal connection. Thus we can really pass on to one another our mind and feeling. There is no need for everyone to go through all the levels that others have passed. We don’t start from scratch, but we depend on society and on what we can acquire from it.

This is our salvation. This is how we shorten the way and hasten the development. Instead of learning from troubles, we learn from other people and acquire wisdom. Although in our world we don’t always pass on to one another a positive potential. People who are more connected to nature are actually more developed: They are more delicate, more sensitive, and closer to spirituality compared to the “civilized” world.

But the main thing is the same: We receive the reason and feeling from those we join. This is true even on this world’s corporeal level. Thus every leap in our communication, in the connection between us, is also reflected in the inner mutual cooperation. As a result, humanity develops much faster; this was revealed most prominently in the 20th century with its massive growth after ages of relatively “slow” years. All this is a result of the wires of mutual connection that have been woven among people, through which the feeling and reason are transmitted.

Accordingly, we too, by our connection to the right group, can acquire the mind and feeling of the friends and thus complete what we didn’t go through by ourselves. Actually, it makes no difference who is “small” and who is “big” among us. I acquire from them what I could never have reached by myself. I am just a point in the force field of the general system, and I acquire the whole integral system from them. If I don’t connect to them, then there is nowhere I can feel this new dimension.

So, if in our world connecting with others is beneficial to some extent, then in spirituality, it is crucial: Only thanks to it do I acquire the spiritual vessel.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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“Religion” in general is one’s attitude to life. It determines how I perceive life and how I discover the secret of its essence. Do I have a tool by which I discover the reason we are born, the reason for our existence and the reason of our death, the changes in life and of the times, the basic reason for all of reality and for this world, and perhaps for other worlds too?

All this is “religion,” religion is the means by which I open all the doors, understand and feel everything, and am incorporated in everything. This is where the Hebrew word “religion” (Da’at) comes from, meaning to know, to perceive, to be familiar with, to discover, to attain.

People have given the name “religion” to something that doesn’t bring them to any attainment, but only gives them a psychological guarantee for some reward for their suffering. Where does that come from?

Once, before the destruction of the temple, religion was the wisdom of Kabbalah. In that life, we attained the upper world. In Babel, Abraham discovered this paradigm, this attitude to nature, to man, and to the development, and passed it on to the group of Kabbalists that he assembled. Its way from Babel until the destruction of the second temple was realized by a method called religion or Kabbalah.

Later, however, this group that had become a nation, fell from the spiritual level to corporeality, and lost the religion, spiritual recognition, spiritual understanding, and the connection with the upper force. Abraham’s offspring were left with just the external customs that are preformed on the corporeal level, while the true religion disappeared and was concealed from them. Now we are returning to it.

In the meantime, for centuries, other methods that are based on egoism, on concealment, and on ignorance regarding the elements of the world have replaced religion.

In “The Writings of the Future Generation” Baal HaSulam says that we are not fighting anyone’s mistakes. After all, this whole process is part of the plan of the development humanity has to go through. We don’t blame anyone for anything or the new “religions” that appeared. On the contrary, through them, we have developed while we were in exile.

Now, when we are waking up towards the spiritual revelation, we discover the same and only initial religion, which is also called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.”  At the same time, all the other methods still exist: every individual can follow them according to his level of obligation. Even if a person has risen above them and is not connected to them by faith, still, as Kabbalists say, we respect their customs, which have become the cultures of different peoples. So there is always room for them. They constitute the external environment that protects a person and creates a certain framework in which one lives.

In any case, the true religion is a person’s attitude to his existence, to his outlook of life, by which he arranges every aspect of his life.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/11, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: What will be the system of bestowal between us that we will see once it becomes revealed to us?

Answer: We should see this system between us now, after the convention. Every person must see the points in the heart and understand that although he is distant from others, the network that connects our hearts exists.

There is a more internal network, that of all our friends (and inside it, the higher system of all Kabbalists of the past). Around it, there is a more external network: all of humanity. The systems are interconnected, and this connection doesn’t change, it is constant. Only our correct attitude was shattered.

As we say in our world, relationships break-up, meaning that they were good and have become bad. The relationships exist, but they are broken.

We have to discover the system in which we are all connected. It is impossible to tear apart these connections or to change them. Only the relationships within the connections can be changed. And now it is up to us how we will discover life within this system.

It relates to the entire world. For us, it is an inner action, our internal dissemination. Relative to the world, it is external dissemination. Thus, these two systems will begin to interact.

A person should feel internally that it is so. Then he will gradually begin to see that our world is imaginary. The more a person sees himself as part of this system and feels that he depends on it, the more he will see that everything in his life, even in his external, corporeal life, at work for example, depends on the intensity of his effort in this system.

Then, all the corporeal actions, the corporeal forms, and all the world you see around you will gradually turn into some kind of inflated external form, like a puppet that moves because the puppet maker’s hand is playing with it as if it were alive.

Instead of just people, you will see their connection with the general system. You will understand what motivates them, what signals they receive from the system, and their reactions to them. You will see that in each one, it is his connection with the rest of the system that operates, and nothing more than that. You will realize that the body that dresses this connection is like a halo, a cloud, that has no independent essence.

As long as we do not see this system, we are shown all these bodies and this world to demonstrate to us that something does exist and to give us the free will to penetrate it, to start living in the real world. This is what we have to enter now.

The convention gave us the point of connection with this system, and we have to hold on to it so that we can begin to see the system from it. This is our obligation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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