Question: Do I have to correct the desires that unfold in my relationships with other people today, such as wealth, power, and knowledge?

Answer: No, you don’t. You don’t consider these desires. Why should you? Leave them. After all, they appear in every person individually in a unique combination, while you must correct your attitude to others as a whole, without breaking it into parts.

Treat your desires simplistically. First of all, you must reach the degree of pure bestowal: “What you hate, do not do to your friend,” meaning don’t take pleasure in the suffering of another.

At any rate, whether I am aware of it or not, I always prefer to look down on others. If a person is lower than me, I rejoice, and if I am lower than him or her, I suffer. Thus, my priority is to reach a degree where I stop comparing others to myself. I don’t wish to measure them against what I am.

When I gain such an attitude, the world takes a very different form in my eyes. It is as if I tear off one veil, take one filter off my perception—and open wide a new world. I suddenly get to see others as having no connection to me, to my ego. I eliminate any personal benefit, any interest.

I don’t measure a person by how he or she looks, what they wear, or how they act. I don’t look at them at all. I have neutralized all our relations. The world is full of opportunities. What kind of opportunities? I don’t know just yet. In fact, I don’t need anything. I simply exist along with the others and don’t do anything to them which I, myself, would hate.

It is a very, very transparent, pure spiritual degree since it unfolds above all the material desires of a person. On the outside, it is absolutely undetectable, yet you see the world very differently now.

It is difficult to describe its contours. Are people suffering in your eyes? Are they all righteous, or do you still sort them into good and bad? It is very complicated to explain the inner picture that appears in a person when he or she takes the egoistic filter off.

However, one way or the other, you are faced with a totally different reality, another type of relationship between people. After all, everybody judges by his or her own flaws, whereas you have rid yourself of it and see the world undistorted by the false egoistic mirror.
[45912]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Many friends exerted themselves a lot before the Moscow convention. The importance of the goal was high. What did we lack? What should we, as a group, realize now at the new level?

Answer: In other words, you would like to say that the convention was not successful because we did not reveal in ourselves the property of bestowal. However, we could not achieve it in one go. It is impossible. A child cannot skip a few years of his growth.

Development is a sequential, step-by-step process. Not having realized a certain Reshimo (informational record), you cannot start realizing the next one. You simply will not have the tools in the mind and feelings to develop further.

We have done a great job; we advanced in our perception powerfully and intensively. And now, after the convention, we will go through the process of realizing it—perhaps not altogether pleasantly, but necessary.

Practically, the work that such a convention performs in you is equivalent to half a year of intensive studies. How many people who attended the convention study normally so intensely? We “propelled” them and those who were with us around the world at least six months forward. Such gatherings are very effective, and I am in favor of organizing them as often as possible. I am ready to give all I have got for it.

Naturally, after the convention, the stage of realization comes: “What have we achieved?” Here, a person should proceed to analyze the entire method with the help of articles and studies. He has to re-evaluate it again.

After the convention, many people begin to analyze the method of Kabbalah in general: “What for? Why? How? Is it correct or not? Is it a tale or a real method of my transformation in accordance with general Nature?” These are very useful, necessary, and essential processes that must occur in each of us.

Kabbalah makes you a human, not a robot, not a “half-believer” or mystic, but a researcher. Exploring yourself, you perceive the world and the Creator because all of it is within you. The entire process in based on self-knowledge because a person exists and nothing more.

Each of us has a sense of his “Self” and his world. Now, I feel you, the hall where we are, the planet, the Universe, and all of it happens within me; this picture has been created within me. How can it be changed? How can it be investigated? Is it truly like this? Or is this world presented to us as ethereal, transient, and changing? I perceive everything through the changes of my own properties.

That is why it is impossible to skip developmental stages. I must form them within myself. I have to be my own judge, researcher, and analyst. Essentially, I have to become the Creator of myself. Kabbalah develops in you the need to understand absolutely everything, who and what you are, and to create out of yourself an absolute, perfect form that will be called “the Creator.”

This is long and hard work, but namely it is intended for every human being. Do not think that someone living in a jungle is incapable of such work. He will be included in it because he will have a Kli, desire, shared with others, common thoughts and feelings. Whatever he lacks he will obtain from others.

Had we not evolved under the influence of our environment, we would have remained little “animals.” It is namely the environment that develops us and gives us the missing qualities, desires, intentions. Thus, there is no person in the world whose environment would not include the entire humanity. Anyone can reach the level of anyone of us, no matter how primitive he is.

The entire process of self-knowledge and creating in oneself the highest property should proceed in this manner, step by step. On one hand, this process is individual because a person raises himself, and on the other, it is seemingly a group process. However, in reality, there is neither group nor humanity, but only your immediate part rejected by your egoism and perceived by you as alien.

When you work on yourself, wishing to gradually bring this part closer to you, to accept it as your own, you work against your innate egoism. And you turn it into the force of connection instead of the force of rejection of the seemingly “external” part, of humanity.
[45620]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The wisdom of Kabbalah explains the entire system of the universe, it describes for us the world of Infinity and the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light, meaning the formation of the desires “from absence.”

Kabbalah clarifies what “from absence” means, which is to exist in a spiritual dimension outside of our world, and it explains the descent to it and the ascent from it, which means to “exist beyond time, space, and motion,” which are states as they are realized: according to Einstein or some other higher way?

Kabbalah also discusses the descent of desire. It talks about desire and the influence of a single parameter, the Light, upon it. There is nothing else in the universe except for the Light and desire. They beget everything we see in us and between us. All these things are different manifestations of desire, which were formed by the Light one way or another.

Kabbalah tells us about the gradual descent from Above downward and the creation of blocks of the spiritual state: Partzufim, Sefirot, and the worlds (concealments). This refers to a causal process, a strict and precise one, which we study using a scientific approach.

There is an enormous amount of purely scientific and complicated materials on this topic: graphs, equations, conditions that precisely describe the cause and effect development of desire under the influence of Light, screens, informational records (Reshimot), stages of development, and so on. All of this is pure science that has nothing to do either with religion or poetry; it’s nothing but pure physics.

Furthermore, Kabbalah talks about our world, about its creation. As early as 3,700 years ago Kabbalists described how a spark of Light created the volume of our world because previously, this space did not exist either. Then the Big Bang happened in this space, and this tiny spark gave rise to all matter of our world.

Everything was born from absence in the world of Infinity. Since we do not comprehend this, we ask ourselves: “What does everything out of nothing mean?” However, physicists say that the same thing happened also in our world: There was a certain spark, a point, which suddenly exploded and produced the entire Universe. In other words, modern science follows the same principles and tells us exactly what Kabbalah tells us, including the four consecutive stages of development: still, vegetative, animate, and human.

Kabbalah also tells us about the creation of the Universe over billions of years, and then our planet from a cloud of gases. This is described in Kabbalah books that are hundreds and thousands of years old. Today physics, geology, and astronomy say the same.

Kabbalists described the periods of warming and cooling of Earth, which took tens of millions of years, until a solid crust appeared together with the opportunity for protein matter to exist due to the appropriate distribution between all the components. Why specifically protein matter? Why specifically this kind of foundation instead of silicone or methane, or some other matter? Kabbalah explains all of this.

And finally, Kabbalah tells us about the creation of a human being who was the result of the gradual development of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Kabbalah describes the intermediate stages: corals which are between the still and the vegetative levels; a special species which represents the intermediate state between the vegetative and the animate levels; and a primate which is the intermediate form between the highest animal state and man.

Kabbalah describes all these stages and shows why evolution happened the way it did. The only difference from Darwin’s theory is that Kabbalah tells of informational data that exists from the very beginning, informational genes that exist in matter, which develop according to a preset program instead of an accidental evolution or evolution that depends on circumstances.

All the species are realized based on their inner parameters, which existed from the beginning on the world of Infinity and have simply descended and realized themselves here in order to once again aim upward. This entire chain is determined beforehand; it is calculated ahead of time from beginning to end.
[45544]
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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HaVaYaH (Yod-Key-Vav-Key) is the only model the Creator imprinted on the desire created by Him “from absence.” The whole creation is included in these four phases that continuously expand and unfold in the worlds.

Yet, we never leave Malchut of the world of Infinity that begins to develop within itself, and that’s what we regard as the worlds of Adam Kadmon and Atzilut, the breaking, the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, Assiya, this world, and us in this world. All of this remains inside that very same Malchut of Infinity.

All these worlds appear in relation to those who are attaining Malchut’s properties and the place where they reside. Thus, Malchut reveals itself to them. And this is why we say that we are in “this world.” But what is “this world”? It is the same Malchut of Infinity which is, however, so dark, so self-restricted that we experience it as “this world” instead of the world of infinite Light.

When we begin working and drawing the Light there, aligning ourselves with the Light, we will begin experiencing, instead of this world, the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, and so on in a greater degree, until the entire Malchut gets revealed to us in full.

After it was created, this Malchut was in its primordial state (1); now we are in it in the process of correction (2); and in the end, we will come to the state of the final correction (3). Yet, it is still the same creation, one Malchut of the world of Infinity.
[45310]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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What is the difference between the perception of a baby, a teenager, and an adult? They are all living in the same world, just like you and I, and see it in front of them. But the degree to which each of them reveals this world depends on their development, and to the same extent each of them actively participates in his life. And the world also relates to a person according to his development.

Say, until age 10, a child is considered young and the contribution he makes is moderate, commensurate with his sensation and understanding. The entire difference between this childish perception and the adult one is “covered” by the environment in both senses of the word: both by concealing things that the child cannot understand correctly yet, and compensating for what he is unable to do himself. It turns out that a child receives everything from the world that he is yet unable to earn himself.

And exactly the same thing happens to us in the spiritual work. We are standing opposite the Creator, the upper Light that is at absolute rest, and nothing exists besides Him. But for now there is a concealment that hides the Light which we are unable to reveal, and that compensates for the shortcoming of our work.

When is it already possible to say that a person is in the state of Lo Lishma (for his sake), from which he proceeds to Lishma, bestowal? Only when he feels that he is definitely opposite the Creator, but there is a certain picture of reality standing between them. It is depicted by his qualities or sensations. This is an imaginary world that seems to exist to him—the friends, the group, and everything all around him. This is what still separates a person from the simple upper Light, from the quality of bestowal and absolute love.

For now he does not have these qualities. He makes calculations and behaves according to his development. But he already has a sensation and the right understanding that he stands opposite the Creator, separated from Him by the picture of this world, through which he works with the Creator. This picture of reality essentially consists of all of his uncorrected qualities, which conceal and protect (compensate), like “hair.”

After all, if everything was revealed to him, then of course he would not be able to enter the right relationships with the Creator.

That is how we should view our state. Only from this state of Lo Lishma, when we are sure that there is Lishma (bestowal), but we are not in it, can we gradually come to Lishma if we constantly and persistently try to reveal the Creator and view every occurrence as an opportunity given to us from above to correct our state of Lo Lishma and attain Lishma.
[45795]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/11, Writings of Rabash

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is not disclosed by itself because people reveal it in their development. It states that according to the structure of the universe, we must come to our starting point again.

Initially, one desire was created, and this first state is called the world of Infinity. In this state, the desire and the Light that created the desire exist in absolute similarity, fusion, and mutual complementarity. Here, the desire is filled with the Light, but this is only the conceived state of the future creature. It still feels nothing.

Thus, at the beginning, it has to become opposite to the Creator, opposite to the Light. To detach itself completely from the source, the creature passes through five special stages of development called worlds. Thus, the descent of that desire takes place, that is its consistent distancing from its original state.

The first world is called Adam Kadmon. Adam is the prototype of a future human. Then comes the world of Atzilut, the world of creation, followed by Beria, the world of emanation,Yetzira, the world of formation, and Assiya, the world of action. These are the five worlds, five consecutive descents, coarsening, concealment, and departure of the Light from the desire which it fills. Each next state is like the world of Infinity except that the Light there exists in a more concealed form.

Even now, we are in the world of Infinity because there is nothing else. It’s only that this state is hidden from us behind many inner screens. We have to open them, peel them off, and then, gradually, we will begin to feel ourselves in the true form.

This is similar to the state of a person who lies unconscious. This is our state number two, here in this world. We are in complete concealment here, as if we have lost consciousness and exist in some internal fluctuations, imagining something.

If we exert ourselves in a particular way and regain consciousness,we will rise to our initial state. This is called the third state. This is also the world of Infinity. We reach it by ascending exactly the same steps of the worlds, which we passed in our descent when we were losing a sense of perfection, the complete presence of the Light. In gradually climbing the same steps, we will experience attainment, the transition from our unconscious state to the conscious one.

The first exit from the unconscious state into consciousness is called the barrier, Machsom. The most important thing for us is to cross this Machsom, to exit the state of complete detachment from the perception of global nature.

Now, we feel nature only in the form of our world and do not perceive it through spiritual desires. We experience the world while being in a totally disconnected state, not using the tools which we have at our full disposal.

We feel ourselves through our five sense organs: smell, touch, sight, hearing, taste, and tactile sensation. Thus, our sense of self is passed through our animate body. Then, inside, a specific picture appears in our mind. At the back of our brain, we have a kind of  “screen” on which everything we perceive is projected. All that adds up to a single picture of the world.

This is not what we see during the exit from the unconscious state. As soon as we have crossed the Machsom, we start feeling completely different states. We begin to sense the Light within. Our desire receives the pleasure of fulfillment, knowledge about the real world, and then a precise picture is drawn inside us.

Thus, the plan of the Creator, the original intention of the Light, is to create desire (the Light is primary, desire is secondary) so that this desire, meaning the creature becomes equal to the Light in status, power, and sensations. Naturally, this state is above our world, that is, above time, space, motion, and above the division into life, birth, and death. It is above all of that.

By discovering this new feeling inside us, we will sense ourselves existing eternally like all of nature. We will stop identifying ourselves with an “animal” that exists here in this world. It as if disappears from our perception like the smallest of our sensations.

Thus regaining consciousness, a person can somehow imagine and recall what happened to him. This sensation remains somewhere, but it is so small, so insignificant, so low in power that it is suppressed by the awareness of the existence in a great new world, infinite, eternal, and perfect. This is the Machsom that we must cross.
[45353]
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Question: I see not only evil but also good in the world. I have to find the evil inside myself and correct it. And what can I do with the good?

Answer: In fact, there is no good in the external world. This is a picture of my egoism. If I aim at the goal correctly, I begin to notice the good root in everything that surrounds me because I start seeing it as the manifestation of the Light, the Creator. And this is revealed only to the extent of my striving to reach the goal through this world.

I do not think that you should pay particular attention to this world or analyze it. Begin to aspire to the goal through it, and this world will pull itself up, will change its form.

You will discover that there is nothing good if you do not connect your correct intention to it. There is no good in and of itself. There is one huge corrupted desire which turns into good with the intention to bestow, with the intention to work for the benefit of others.
[45497]
From the 7th lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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The science of Kabbalah has an interesting section about the way we perceive the universe, about how man attains the world in which he lives. Why do we feel the world precisely in this way? Is our world really the way we perceive it to be, or is it completely different? In reality, after it passes through our five senses, it acquires a specific form in our perception. We observe precisely this picture, rather than having a direct, objective perception of the actual world.

Today scientists research how the world is seen by butterflies, bees, snakes, and dogs. Every creature sees it in its own way, in different ranges, through a schema of color or scent, and so on. Every creature has its own kind of orientation in the world and sees its own picture, which differs from what others see.

So why is the picture precisely this way in our eyes? And what is it really like from the objective point of view? Can we even attain a truly objective worldview? This is what the section of Kabbalah called “Perception of Reality” talks about.

However, the most important part of Kabbalah is not the descent from above downwards from the world of Infinity into our world, but what happens afterwards. The most important thing for us is the Machsom and the subsequent path upwards. This is what we are now facing, what we now have to go through. We have to go through it in practice, not in theory, and we have to go through this path all together.

We have to implement this as fast as possible so the negative force of development won’t pressure us from behind, giving us a negative stimulus. In ancient Rome, Stimulus meant a sharp stick that was used to prick donkeys so they would move forward. Thus, it’s important for us not to feel this stimulus on our flesh, but to aspire forward ourselves, with the help of the positive force that is given to us for now.

This is essentially the reason we have gathered together. We can get together and get organized, and we can start feeling each other internally, even without physical contact. Let’s feel that by uniting with one another we become similar to the common, global nature. Then, inside of our unity, we will reveal the common field and will feel that we are rising slightly higher. This is realistic and I hope that you and I will do it.
[45526]
From the 1st lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Kabbalah explains that in the beginning only desire was created, and it was filled with pleasure, the Light. Then, to make the foundation for the future human, this desire was broken into pieces. It remained the same desire but was shattered into numerous fragments, not resembling each other at all. These parts are completely different and do not perceive themselves as being together, do not feel each other. What one wants is not understandable to the other.

The first state is called “the world of Infinity” (∞), and the second, “the breaking of the vessels.” As a result, we have seven billion scattered, broken pieces. On the drawing, they are close together, but in reality, they are internally divided, separated by such walls that they cannot tolerate each other. Everyone feels only oneself, thinks only about oneself, and nobody remembers that once they were one single desire. These are us in our world, in division, to which we were intentionally brought.

The vessels that used to be one whole are completely alienated from each other; they do not even touch each other in their sensations. One of them is me, and the other is you. And if we want to form a soul between us (it is built exactly between us), we must create resistance (R) in the middle.

Why is it needed? The fact is that everybody wants to enjoy but just for himself, nobody thinks about others, and rejection reigns between us. But if we begin to extend the threads of unity to each other, if at least we do not wish evil to each other, then we will rise from our egoistic degree to that of Bina, where I will no longer want to hurt you. This is already the neutralization of egoism.

If I also wish to bring you good that you anticipate in accordance to your ego, then I begin to work on your ego in order to fulfill it. This is the degree of Keter, the degree of love.

This is the process we have to go through, rising first from the degree of egoism to the degree of Bina, in order not to bring the other harm, and then onto the degree of love.
[45193]
From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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The worst and most painful state experienced by Malchut is the state of total fulfillment by the Light in the world of Infinity since it has nothing to cover itself with. All of this forces Malchut to undergo multiple transformations that we call movements, actions.

This chain of reactions that Malchut has to go through is regarded as motion on its part. Hence, it is all about the inner sensations, inner wisdom, inner movement, and about the fact that everything is done solely by the desire and the intention accompanying it. Nothing else is real but this!

Our world that we observe around us is imaginary. Everything is taking place inside Malchut of the world of Infinity until it completes itself and starts receiving in order to bestow, meaning abandons the feeling of receiving for self-gratification it used to have before the First Restriction. That’s so even though this first sensation didn’t qualify as egoistic since Malchut didn’t commit it consciously and didn’t know what state it was entering.

Thus, spiritual motion isn’t measured and evaluated by the number of corporeal actions, but only by the inner states a person is going through. This is why it is so difficult to measure. Everybody keeps asking: How can I know how far I have advanced? In fact, this can only be measured when you’ve entered the spiritual world and can count precisely how many spiritual actions you have performed.

Watching a little child, we see that he doesn’t have any idea where he is and what he is doing. Only as he continues to grow, he perfects the quality of his mind and starts counting what happened yesterday, today, and what will be happen tomorrow. He learns to sense time and later on, motion. He is taught: Do this and do not do that. In other words, he starts attaining certain things and the connection between them; he learns how to transition from one state to the other consciously, to listen to and follow what grown-ups recommend.

It is similar in the spiritual world, and we come to perform the spiritual acts. But all of them take place solely within a person. On the outside, nothing is going on, and nothing depends on the external actions. And yet, our external deeds can influence our internal state since it has to do with human psychology.

We get involved in the surrounding society by way of our personal participation, by certain corporeal actions, and thanks to that, we unify with it internally. And this inner bond impacts us and gets counted as our spiritual work.

Hence, it all depends on our awareness of the evil—that’s why we study and do spiritual work. The instant a person feels his egoism, he is ready to take spiritual action, meaning to change within, in order to get rid of this evil. And then the question is what kind of evil it is: how big it is in quality and quantity regarding bestowal or reception.
[44974]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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