Question: How can we reach the right prayer as quickly as possible?

Answer: Our effort, just like all the spiritual discernments, isn’t measured according to the number of actions but according to their quality. Sometimes we can see a person who tries very hard and does many things spinning like a humming fan. Everyone may admire his energy but the benefit of such actions can be minimal. As it says, “little with the right intention is better.”

The spiritual world is made of qualities: either in order to receive or in order to bestow. Everything depends on that, on how much either one weighs and not the actual number of actions. Therefore it says,” A person can attain his world in one hour!” But how is that possible if one spends a thousand hours or a million hours?! All of humanity wastes billions of hours and doesn’t reach the goal, and there are people who attain their world in one hour and reach revelation. Is this fair?

It’s possible due to the quality that is more important than the quantity. So if you want to reach the right prayer as quickly as possible, you should make an effort in quality and not in the quantity with regard to actions and intentions. Quality should come first.

A qualitative effort means constantly clarifying what receiving and bestowal mean, one with regard to the other. This is what we should look for in every aspect of life, in all our relations with others.

The qualitative effort is measured by how much my heart is involved. The heart should be the criterion and not the mind. There are very clever people and I actually used to envy them in the past when I saw how quickly they could grasp the material, understand things, and delve into details. But eventually I discovered that “it isn’t the wise who learns.” You can understand only through your feelings, and I didn’t really consider that as something serious but rather as something frivolous, some feminine sentiments.

I believed that one’s power is in the mind, but that isn’t true. First everything must go through the feelings and only then a person understands. The mind reads and perceives only what goes through the heart. So we have to try and expand our feelings as much as possible in the right direction, of course. The feelings expand only by the Light that Reforms.
[125502]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/14, The Zohar

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Question: On the one hand, we must reach a permanent and strong intention. But on the other hand, it is written: “For the Torah shall come out of Zion”; that is, specifically from the “exits” from spirituality and the returns. How is it possible to combine the two opposites?

Answer: We must continue always towards a permanent intention so that the Creator will be discovered in the center of the group, within our connected hearts, without any dividers between them. This picture must always be before me. And I must be concerned that my friends will be directed towards that thing and will not abandon this intention. That is how I assure myself automatically that I will also remain in that intention. By this means I summon upon myself the Light that Reforms which strengthens me in the right intention.

But together with this, new desires, new conditions, are discovered and awakened in me all the time since in the meantime my Kli is not fully corrected. Therefore I am found in exits all the time. Additional density is discovered and it throws me out, and I must again and again return to the center of the group. But these exits must come from Above. I am not weakened in my intention; rather, it’s as if I lost consciousness: Every new egoistic desire throws me to the boards from which I must rise.

It’s said that the Torah specifically emerges from such “exits.” After all, I must overcome them and specifically above them I will construct the new me.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Workshop

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The Book of Zohar, “VaYikahel,” Item 141: Therefore, it is forbidden to kindle a man’s voice during prayer, so that the upper voice, ZA, will be in it, since the speech rises to Malchut and unites with ZA through the Malchut, receiving a voice that is mitigated from ZA. Then the prayer is fit for reception of the abundance, and the speech of the upper world need not be heard through a man’s voice.

There is a rule, “there is no vessel without the Light.” Everything is done by the Light only, while we only exert ourselves, which is the precondition for every action. Every single action is done only by the Light that works on the vessel.

We are only required to exert ourselves; we don’t do anything but only increase the intensity of the deficiency. This is the reason we are in our world, since this is the only place where we can perform different experiments and actions, which from a spiritual perspective are not considered actions. They only bring us to a state in which we can ask for the correction of the vessels and for their filling.

This is why our world is so special. If we didn’t exist in this reality we wouldn’t be able to influence our spiritual ascent in any way, since all the actions are performed only by the Light. So how can I, being on a certain spiritual level, influence something that is higher than that level? By which means can I do this? I have to be detached from the spiritual world in order to ask to be raised from one state to another, from one level of clarification and new correction to another.

There has to be a reality that is detached from the spiritual ladder, which is where I am, in which I can always prepare for the prayer before a prayer. This is the reason that the corporeal actions in our world are so beneficial to reach a certain state and to ask for the Light that Reforms. We shouldn’t think that we don’t need our world, that we can do nothing but simply connect internally and that this would be enough.

This isn’t enough. On the contrary, the more a person does in practice, the more desire, pressure, and experience he builds up inside him as a result of all his actions, which eventually add up to a cry, to a prayer before a prayer. The prayer before a prayer is addressed to the Light with a request to form the vessel, the desire. The prayer itself is addressed to the Light so that it will fill the vessels, which means that it will actually allow us to bestow.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/14, The Zohar

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Question: I can imagine the great responsibility toward the friends in a sinking submarine. How can I feel this anxiety and this tension during the workshops when there isn’t such drama going on around us?

Answer: Listen, no one is asking you to do any tricks like a magician and pull a rabbit out of a hat. There is no need to perform any tricks, but simply try to tie your demand, your deficiency, with the upper force, and that’s all. Try to demand, to ask for anything. The moment you lack something for your spiritual advancement, turn to the Creator immediately with any request that you have. If you manage to tie it correctly to the Creator, you will have no problems.

Your work is to be the link, the adaptor, between the deficiencies and the source. No one is asking you to be the source of energy and not even to be the user of this energy, which means doing something by yourself. Your work is passive: simply to nag and keep on asking for what you want from the Creator. However, you should ask wisely. You should clarify accurately what it is that you exactly want, and then ask for it. You should understand that the Creator arranges difficulties for you precisely so that you should nag Him and, by that, learn from Him, and thus advance.

The problem is that you are leaving the Creator. Baal HaSulam says that the greatest sin a person can commit in this world is to forget the Creator and to be detached from Him. So, don’t be detached and keep nagging Him with your requests. That’s the only thing you are required to do.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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There is a single state: adhesion between the Creator and the created being. It happened in the beginning. The final correction emerged immediately with the plan. The Creator does not require time for additional actions. After all, everything is manifested immediately in thought, without any need to be in matter.

However, in reality, this perfection has not been manifested, is not clear, not recognized in feelings, although the main thing is that the created being becomes aware of it, to feel his adhesion with the Creator.

Therefore, it was divided into parts. After all, for the created beings to attain, to understand, who and what He is, above all, there should be plenty.

Little egoists, fighting at the very bottom in the muddy sediment of the universe, reveal more and more egoism—more cruelty, glorify themselves in seeing how much they are opposed to each other—and gradually they approach the turning point in order to turn a descent into an ascent in it. They must think about bestowal, of course, in helplessness due to the emerging Reshimot. However, they can add their own efforts to this. So, they advance.

The most important thing from their side is to turn to the Creator. They connect, work together, organize workshops, and many other events, and, after that, turn to Him.

This appeal forms the spiritual vessel. It is what did not exist before. Only the created being can turn to the Creator for help, and this is what he lacks. It is not about our friendly relations, not in saying “pretty words” between us, but that we find the need to turn to Him. First, we must do this, and then we want just that and nothing else.

Then, I act not to get something from the Creator but so I have the opportunity to turn to Him. This is a reward for me. It cannot be conveyed in words, but in principle. We are talking about the similarity of qualities. Just as He turns to me, so I turn to Him. I have no better state than if I am capable of this. I work for this, no longer for myself.

So, the all-powerful Creator cannot artificially cause the created being to turn to Him. That is why He needed the “revolution” to the uncorrected creatures—so that the created being turns to Him.

Question: However, do I have a connection with the Creator inside me presently?

Answer: And yet it exists, there, inside the numerous “wrappers.” Otherwise, you would not have even heard what we are talking about now.

Question: What is an appeal to the Creator?

Answer: There are many appeals: “Give me, help me,” or vice versa, “Deliver, protect, save…”

Of course, an appeal to the Creator is always an appeal for something, please give something. The question only is what to give. I ask for strength to act to bring Him pleasure. This addition of spiritual vessels brings us the Light, NRNHY.

In the original state, in Infinity, we had only the minimal Light, Nefesh de Nefesh. Then, the created being did not participate in what happened, could not live and breathe the endless reality. The desire to receive, even perfection, remained insignificant, ephemeral, and only an appeal to the Creator breathes life into it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What must I distinguish in my life as the main thing? What should I pay attention to first?

Answer: Your attention should be focused on the only thing: praying for others. Let people feel good in unity, good because the Creator brings them good and enjoys it.

Question: And what about the problems in other areas of my life?

Answer: It seems that your prayer is not yet complete. The Creator wants you to perfect it, and that is why He “pokes” you here and there, aiming you at the goal. If you are not sensitive enough or are thick-skinned or stubborn, then you need to have some “touches to the picture” added to give the desired vector. Indeed, the farther you advance toward the goal, the more precise the corrections should be. So, with every step, the pokings will be more sensitive to guide you precisely on course.

Question: How can I use them?

Answer: We need to accept them with love. After all, they are like the indications of the navigator that leads you along the route. How is it possible to manage without them? Would you understand or feel where your next turn is? You need these painful sensations: shakes, frustration, and rejection.

Every time, you strive to the goal with their help, through the friends, through the group, and through the world, keeping a course only at the Creator in order to bring Him this entire vessel. The vessel can make the correction and thanks to it, will be fully imbued with the pleasure of the Creator only in order to bring Him pleasure. The entire world will want to open itself so that the Creator fills it with goodness, and we will be able to turn everything into bestowal unto Him.

How can we advance toward this bestowal? How can we learn this?—above the unpleasant things. If you cannot give up what feels good to you now and reduce the degree of comfort in the desire to receive, how will you be able to give up pleasure later? How will you convert it into bestowal? That is why we must go through the stages of development.

Question: This means that troubles come to me so that it is easier to give up pleasant things?

Answer: Not at all. We use them for something else. They come in your sensation, are manifested in the desires where there is no awareness of the greatness of the Creator. If you had felt the importance of the Creator in them, you would not have felt pain. Every unpleasant sensation hides a lack of importance of the Creator and nothing else. As soon as you feel that He is important, any discomfort disappears. Similarly, her own state is not important to a mother as long as her child is well. As it is written, “Love covers all transgressions.”

So, we must pray for friends and for the entire world. However, we cannot just sit and pray. I need to work in the group to come to the necessary prayer. A prayer is the result of all my actions, all my efforts. I help friends and help society understanding that the only help I am capable of is to direct others to the single goal.

Material efforts are intended eventually to establish connection with people and bring them to the method that gives the right approach. Charity does not in itself change the world for the better, and governments are also powerless in this. That is why we must study the system of the universe and understand that there is only one really effective means: bringing people together to pray for them.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can my work with the world change me in a way that I eventually attain the Creator?

Answer: It is very simple. I have already explained it many times.

Let’s say that we aspire to rise to the Creator, to the property of bestowal. We cannot address the Creator solely for our own sake, even if we ask for the property of bestowal to be granted to us. “Give me the quality of bestowal! Correct me!” Why? It sounds as if you are blaming the Creator for making you “bad” and now you are asking Him: “Correct what you did!”

There are very subtle nuances here. Remember, we cannot address the Creator with our personal requests. Our demand has to be general and come from all friends. Only when we try to unite in a group and create common properties between us can we address the Creator by asking Him to manifest in us. Our appeal to Him is called MAN and His answer to us is called MAD.

But even if we receive something in return, it will be only a slight sensation of spirituality called Galgalta ve Eynaim or Hafetz Hesed (one who doesn’t desire anything for one’s own sake), nothing more!

In order to truly sense spirituality and elicit the upper force, we don’t need desires of our own, but rather the desires of our neighbors. Otherwise, our demand for altruistic properties will be just an egoistic act.

“Why do you need altruistic qualities? Be happy with the way I created you!” If one wants to rise above one’s nature, one shouldn’t request to alter it.

Think about it and try to “digest” these states internally. If we justify the King, then we validate everything He does to us, even if He imprisons us. If we don’t approve of the King, it means that our egoism is screaming in us and that we judge everything through our own states.

Therefore, we should address the Creator all together in order to truly reveal the Creator instead of praying just for ourselves. If we do so, we’ll acquire a “small addition,” seven billion people, the entire humanity.

If we take care of the others as if they were our children, then we’ll start to feel them. As soon as our influence on them begins, their reaction will suddenly become clear to us. We’ll start caring about them. We’ll understand and feel them as if they were our children. We’ll realize what’s good and what’s bad for them since we’ll feel their internal pain.

We’ll sense their reaction, their demand, their MAN for salvation and unity that will be directed to us.

We are incapable of doing it on our own. Then again, can they really unite and become one whole even though they are not a Kabbalistic group? They don’t know anything nor do they want to study since they don’t have any predisposition for it.

In order to connect internally, they need the Upper Light, the Creator. MAD will transition through us to them. They will sense It because while educating them, we will become a source of energy for them. We serve as a transitional link for them.
[124337]
From the Virtual Convention in Moscow 12/15/13, Lesson 5

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Question: Are there external measurements or revelations that show the purity of my intention?

Answer: Your real intentions are not known, even to you, and others certainly don’t know them. Thus, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the hidden wisdom, the inner part of the world, since it talks about that which is not revealed in our world.

How can we determine our intentions? Just try to do everything in the group with good intentions and gradually you will begin to feel as you lie to others and yourself, and you will enjoy it as a revelation of truth.

Moreover, it suggests that not only did you previously have bad intentions in action and now their real essence is revealed, but also in the future, they will remain like that. So, what is there to do? It is to ask for good intentions.

Thus, begin to perform good physical acts for the good of the group, try to work within them with the correct intention. As a result of that you reach a conclusion that all of that is done only for your sake.

This is the correct result, you reveal the truth. And even though you feel uncomfortable, you must be thankful to the Creator and ask that from now on He will give you the opportunity to do the right thing. Then, you are given the correct intention.

The next time when you do something for the group, again you will be shown that you had an incorrect intention, and again in an identical way, you go forward. In this advancement via cycles, you constantly discover within yourself the incorrectness of your intentions, but you discover them each time at a new level.

Of course, it is an unpleasant situation. However, by way of general support, by overall inspiration, by understanding that it is specifically in this way that we advance, you will see that it is a wonderful internal battle. In the end, from within all of these conflicting sensations, man begins to understand himself, the world, and the Creator.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention 12/13/13, Lesson 2

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Question: How can we establish the same attitude towards The Book of Zohar as the attitude we are trying to establish in our workshops? The point is that in the integral education we suddenly feel that we lack a source and if we added The Book of Zohar to the workshop it could raise us to a new level…

Answer: It will happen. We should see The Book of Zohar as the adaptor between the Creator and us. The Creator inserts this book into us, the book opens and builds us, and with its help it is revealed.

The Book of Zohar is a tool. It isn’t a book in the ordinary sense, but a collection of means for discovering the Creator in the created being.

But the book can be revealed only in a group that is ready. The Zohar builds us, but there should be the right preparation for The Book of Zohar to begin to operate.

Question: There is a certain illusion when you sit in front of the book and not in a circle of friends that the study of The Zohar is an individual study. How can we overcome this in order to feel that we are in one circle around The Book of Zohar with the whole global vessel?

Answer: You should speak about it before the lesson. This is called an intention before the study and also during the study. It has to come from the inside. Both the Lights and the vessels are clarified from the inside. No external advice will help here. This is clear.
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From the 2^nd  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/06/14, The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parshat, “VaYikahel”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“, Item 14: Even the souls of the righteous will not be able to rejoice in the Garden of Eden after their demise, but only after their bodies rot in the dust.

The body is a desire to receive and it must disintegrate and lose its current form. Today it is totally corrupt by the egoistic intention of in order to receive, and so it has to die, to get rid of the form of in order to receive, to rot, and to disintegrate.

Up until now, the cruel attraction to pleasures held it together, the desire to enjoy as much as possible. The body is made of many desires to receive which together make a “gang” that is strongly connected into one body and which is totally only in order to receive. It aspires to beat the Creator, to use Him to the end and to benefit from Him as much as possible.

Therefore, this corrupt body has to die and to determine that this state is death, but this isn’t enough either. It has to rot so that all the parts of the “gang” will disintegrate, be separated and rot in the ground. This is the crucial correction, the disintegration of the body into separate parts, into small grains of the previous desire that should be totally lifeless and empty. They reach a state of dust, which means that there is nothing left of their previous corrupt form.

Thus the desire descends through the worlds of ABYA of impurity along the left line to level zero, to complete disintegration, and then it begins to put on the form of the worlds of ABYA of holiness, which means the intention of in order to bestow. Now all the parts connect in order to bestow upon others and not in order to receive. This is already the time of correction.

So the body has to die and to be totally disconnected from the inclination of in order to receive, which means to restrict itself from in order to receive and then to rot to tiny particles of dust, which is the last level after fire, water, and wind, to rot completely, and then to collect and put itself back together again by these particles but with the intention of in order to bestow.

Where can it find this intention? From the Upper Light, the Creator shows you His form if you want to resemble Him. Like a guest, all you need to do is ask, and the host will do whatever you need. He will not impose His bestowal on you, He will be considerate of your state and will add His form a little each time, and thus you will acquire His form and at the same time receive the filling. But it will be His filling now and not the filling that you had before. You will feel what the Creator feels. This is what He wants you to feel; this is called to do good to His created beings.

But you should be incorporated with these two opposite parts, the minus and the plus. Otherwise you will not be a real created being. You have to have something that the Creator doesn’t have in order to exist independently, and at the same time you should be like Him. It is as if the Creator duplicates Himself but this duplication has to be independent, since its inner form is in order to receive but the intention of in order to bestow is dressed on its external side. Although it may seem to be very simple, it is actually an ingenious invention.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/03/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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