Question: How can we create a supportive atmosphere in the global group that will enable each one to feel that he belongs to the whole?

Answer: First, the friends must understand that they cannot advance without an environment. These are not just nice words that you can hear wherever collective efforts are needed. No, it is about surviving or perishing.

From the spiritual perspective, I am a zero. I open a spiritual account only if I am incorporated in the group and receive the vitality of the friends through them. There is no other way. The group is the umbilical cord that ties you with the Partzuf AVI within the level of the Creator.

Question: What if a friend is repulsed by the group?

Answer: It is the natural work of the ego. It is revealed precisely when we want to get closer to one another and we encounter repulsion. Repulsion from the desire to get closer is called ego.

However, when we don’t try to get closer, the ego is not revealed. The feeling of repulsion in this world only is called ego, but, in fact, it isn’t the ego that we must correct since it isn’t against the Creator. It isn’t revealed to me against the real connection.

The real ego is the force that stands in my way of connecting with the friends. I want it, but the Creator trips me and says, “No, I will not give it to you. Here, I demand a special action from you that is called faith above reason, a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. If you want to overcome your ego, go ahead. You must demand the Light that Reforms in order to do so.”

Then, having no choice, I cry out. Thus, the Creator forces me to turn to Him in order to receive the Light, in order to think about the attribute of bestowal.
[116092]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Each and every action of ours should contain a vibrant appeal to the Creator. Any material activity that is not accompanied by intentions like: “Why am I doing this? Who am I interacting with together (with Him)? Why am I doing what I am doing (in order to reveal Him)?” Any action of ours that is not associated with clarifying these questions is completely useless.

If one prioritizes material actions and success above spiritual activities and attainment, one descends to the “ground” level instead of committing a spiritual deed. It’s a shame to waste time on such things. Our existence is not meant for it.

Does it mean that you approach others to tell them how wonderful it is to be together? Is it really your goal to organize a kibbutz or a collective farm? Not at all! You want to talk with them about unity and about an exceptional force that each of us contains inside because (from this point on, you should continue the dialog internally, in your thoughts) the power of unity will allow us to reveal the Creator in order to please Him.

You are obligated to continue this formula to the very end. We have to start with the Creator and conclude with the Creator. The Creator has to be in the beginning of our thoughts and He must be at the end; in the middle, there is our material world. It’s as if you start from state 1 of the world of infinity, go all the way down, from top to bottom, to this world, to state 2, and then return back to state 3, to the world of infinity at the end of correction.

Each of our actions is an implementation of the entire chain: from the world of infinity in the beginning of creation to the world of infinity at the end of creation. Repeat it to yourself as a mantra; it’s important that you do it until your heart begins feeling it. It’s as if you try to start up a dead engine; you try as many times as needed until it starts working.

Each time you do it using your material desire, which as of now doesn’t have anything in common with any kind of spiritual activity. You repeat it, as a child who doesn’t understand the meaning of words, until you start understanding. The Light impacts desires, clarifies and connects them until one begins feeling what one reiterates. Out of my own experience, I know that it works, although it requires lots of time.

However, there is nothing we can do about it, since the time, in fact, is just a chain of changes that we experience in our desires. Each time we go through a new correction. It’s a blessing that we have received a job that requires assistance of the upper force. Even if we artificially proclaim that we need the upper force, we can be assured that various troubles and enemies will not force us to understand how much we need the upper force.

We are the ones who define what route: the path of Light or the path of suffering. This is a very concrete choice: We either go one way or the other. The Creator wants us to connect with Him. If we obligate ourselves to do that with the help of a group and by keeping in mind the importance of the goal, then we’ll choose a positive and concise way. If not, then the “help against us” appears. At this time, we feel it on our skin. This is wonderful, since it’s help from above; it’s already a revelation of the upper governance.
[115370]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/13

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Question: What is the “Creator?” I feel the force of the group revives me and connection with the teacher as the force vitalizing me, but I do not feel the Creator.

Answer: The Creator is the force that animates everything, thanks to which we exist. There is some force in nature that moves everything. Why do electrons spin in the atom? There is a driving force that is hidden even more than all these tiny elementary particles that make up the entire world. This force is the cause of your life.

Matter itself cannot act. It has no force however great a person may seem. Once they thought that a royal person had something special: blue blood, exceptional qualities. That is, some sort of sanctity was attributed to him, but it’s just an animal body of the same flesh and blood. It is possible that the body has a special spirit, but it is not given as a birthright. Everything is attained only through efforts.

Thus, we are not referring to matter itself, to some image. This world has nothing that would have the power to correct the world, to keep it in the correct form. A very deep inner force acts in this world that is beyond all matter, beyond the electrons and the smallest elementary particles. This is the force to which we turn.

We will feel it when we have a vessel for this, but if we did not aim at this initially, all our actions would be futile. We must think about it to the best of our understanding, our feeling, and these efforts eventually will lead us to the feeling of the Creator; none of my explanations will help.

I explain just for you to make efforts to not forget that you need the Creator and cannot perform any action without Him. Let’s suppose that you are going to give a lecture, a workshop, and you want to succeed. People want to use this workshop to lower their taxes and scream about how bad they feel. You can stay with them only on the first floor, but you can go up to the second floor, which means intention, connection to the higher force that especially arranged everything, and it puts pressure on us, calling us to draw attention to it and come closer to it, to rise to the next level of development.

Then, you will be connected with a group practically and not just be inspired to give a nice lecture. It no longer would be empty calls to unity as the communists did. After all, Stalin also called the people to unite, and Hitler did that as well. They both were socialists. However, we must understand that we are not talking about unity as such but about creating the space for the revelation of the Creator!

This should be our sole and original intent. Otherwise, we will not succeed. We will continue a few more years that will teach us failures like in Russia, Cuba, the Kibbutzim, and all other places where they tried to achieve such unity. All these attempts ended in breakdown for one reason only: They were not made for the sake of the Creator. They were not successful only because of this.

That is why I keep repeating that bringing pleasure to the Creator is the cause of all of our actions and their result, and we should not forget about that in the middle. Only then will we succeed, and then we will see that all the previous failed attempts in all the other places were the preparation for our success. We will succeed due to failures because they prepared the ground for us.
[115940]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/13

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Question: Why do I feel that I need to be corrected, but it doesn’t happen?

Answer: That cannot be. If you demand correction, then it must immediately happen. It seems that you demand, but is not for correction as long as you are just saying this with words but aren’t feeling it in your heart. You need to check yourself. There cannot be such a thing that someone is refused correction.

If you truly want to correct something in you, if you have clarified that this is a corrupted characteristic, see it before you, and you act in order to bestow without regard for any benefit for yourself, then it will be corrected. The system already exists and it cannot be otherwise. It acts like a sound car and it cannot be that it doesn’t work.

Besides you, no one in the world has free choice, including the Creator! It is said: (Psalms 148:6) “He gave a law and it will not be transgressed.” The Creator cannot suddenly want something or not want something, as if a higher power could change His decision.

We don’t understand how this system is built. It is found in the state of the final correction (Gmar Tikkun). And you are found in a completely corrupted state, and you need to reach from one extreme to the other. To do this, you are given Partzufim and “spiritual worlds,” a staircase of steps, and on every level there exists a unique Light that works on you.

Besides you, no one else can do anything! So how about the rest of creation, all seven billion? Okay, let’s suppose that those who don’t have a point in the heart don’t have free choice. But what about those who have a point in the heart, because  they have free choice can’t they intervene  No, they cannot, everything depends only on you.

Everyone needs to say this about himself, and this is truly so. Only I–in my section in regard to my soul, in regard to my part of the work—possess free choice. And no still, vegetative, animate, or speaking, including the Creator can intervene. Everything else other than me is the system.

Therefore you can scream, cry, beg, but you are facing a system, a machine. If you have already learned how to run it, then you can make it work. And if not, then it is necessary to learn more about how to do this. That is all; there are no excuses.
[115025]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/13, Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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Question: How can I be sure that I am developing? How can I verify that I am not standing in place and not found to be regressing?

Answer: My development is determined according to how much I am conscious of my dependence on the other, on the friends, on the teacher, on the learning, on the entire world, and on the Creator. On one hand, these means open me; on the other hand, I discover my implementation in them.

If everyday I feel more of a need for a group, for support, for the Creator, for the Light that Reforms, if I feel more dependent upon them, if I am weak, powerless, at a loss without them, this indicates I am advancing.

The spiritual path differs from the physical world in which, on the contrary, we judge advancement according to independence and a lack of dependence upon others. When a person develops spiritually, he feels more clearly how much he requires and depends on everyone.

I cannot be without the desires of the lower levels and without the help of the higher levels. So who am I? I am the one who builds the right relationship, expanding the connection with the general public and with the spiritual levels by way of the group. Without these two components I am nothing.

After all, I come to the group with my personal desire, and therefore, I am egoistic. This is enough for a start, yet a year goes by and what’s next? If I continue my path with my personal needs, then I will only get one thing: the exercise of the ego. Therefore I need to go out to the external society, to the general public, to the greater world, and attach the desires of the people to myself in order to bring good to them.

I want to bestow to them, even though in the meantime, it is egoistically. I am cloaked in someone’s need and this need brings me to a group; with it, I turn to the Creator, and only through this appeal do I get an answer. Now I am directed towards bestowal at least in some way, and this is thanks to my going out.

And conversely, if I don’t go out and am enclosed within a group, then I am working only with my personal egoistic desires, with no chance of success.

This is the reason that it is so important for us to “go out to the public.” The Kabbalists of previous generations could not do this because the appropriate conditions had not yet been created in the world. This was very painful for them, like it is for a mother who is incapable of nursing her infant.

Today, however, all the necessary conditions have been created and we must penetrate into the desires of the people in order to join with them to connect in a group. And then by means of this connection, we can raise their desires to the Creator.

Even though the needs of others don’t matter to my ego, in spite of it all, I want to help them, and I reach a group that is connected with this intention to bestow and together we raise our requests to the higher power, to a higher level. We need three levels here:

• the world,
• we, as a means for correction,
• the Creator.

It is written about this: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” This must be the intention that precedes action.

This intention may come from either the Creator or the creature. On the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate, it comes from the Creator and everything is found to be under His control. Yet we want that the intentions will come from us; we want to rise to the level of the “speaking.” Since this is called Adam (man), this is what forms and builds the intention. The intention itself is essentially the Adam in us.

So I form the intention, on the basis of those desires that I received from the “people,” from the people to whom I turned to for their correction (1). The Creator inserts these desires into them after sending them certain troubles. When I discover this (2), I take these troubles upon myself, and, in fact, here the aspiration for bestowal is already found. Now I have a desire that is equipped with a Masach (screen) and intention.

Even though, in the meantime, this is not true and is egoistic, yet together with this, the system gets its future spiritual form. This is because through my turning to people, I at least emulate bestowal and work with their desires and not mine.

I could never hold on to a screen and the Returning Light with my particular desires. This is because if I lack something, I remember the Creator only so that He will satisfy my needs. Yet now, when I am equipped with the desires of the other that don’t belong to my ego, I am truly ready to think about the Creator.

Thus, the foundations of the spiritual vessels (Kelim), desires, are laid in an egoistic appeal to the people with which I can to turn to the Creator with the request: “Help them!” This action teaches and brings me to a kind of spiritual image, and therefore in response, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) or the Light that Reforms arrives.

To do this, I connect with the group and we raise the “prayer of the many” to the Creator. Yes, it is still egoistic and entirely false because we are not yet corrected, but even in such an uncorrected request there is a grain of spiritual truth. Its nucleus is already correct.

After that, Surrounding Light arrives from the Creator by way of the group, but it doesn’t reach me directly. It is left in the group and this helps us to connect until our additional connection includes the outer circle within it and awakens the discovery of the Inner Light (Ohr Pinimi).

So the desire of the other is extremely important. It allows us to build the entire chain in the right form.

And after that, we receive the Light that Reforms, and with its help we are truly concerned about the others and their desires, and they are connected to us more and more as if they are ours, and they oblige us to be concerned about them more than about our personal needs.

Anyway, we are always working with the desire of the other. And therefore dissemination establishes the right arrangement for the entire process, shaping us as necessary. Without this we have no chance to succeed.
[114970]
From the 4^th Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Exile and Redemption”

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Question: How can we bring the Creator contentment?

Answer: Bringing the Creator contentment means to discover Him. This brings contentment to Him and to all of humanity. The contentment of the Creator and of the created beings is the Light that fills the vessels: pleasure from filling the desire and from the attitude, which means on the first level and on the second level on the corporeal level and on the spiritual level. This is the Creator’s goal—to fully fill the vessels—and it brings contentment to Him and to the created beings, and so they both adhere to each other.

It is better to do less, but with the right intention. It isn’t about the quantity. If you need to spend more time to prepare, it is worth it. People are connected; if you talk to certain people you contact them, influence them, and if it is done correctly with the Inner Light that conveys the feeling, then it will later spread from them to all the other people they are in contact with. It will spread and influence everyone, they will do it subconsciously.

But if these are just corporeal actions, people can be inspired, cry, and shout like a crowd of fanatic fans at a performance of a pop star. They can also be impressed by the nice words of some talented speaker, like Trotsky, for example. But this will not lead to any positive outcomes but rather to destruction. So preparation is the most important thing before every action, the intention to bring the Creator contentment.

This is the only thing I think about all day: How to add my intention to my work, since this is the secret for success.
[115938]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/13

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Question: What does it mean to delight the Creator?

Answer: Delighting the Creator means to give Him a place to be revealed in His created beings.

Question: Can I assume that the intention to delight the Creator is the action that helps us to go outside to get rid of egoism and connect with others?

Answer: Yes. The intention to delight the Creator should be primary, and on this basis, we build all our other activities.
[115876]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Question: What does it mean that before we go out to people it is necessary to obtain the power of the Creator with the help of the group, the teacher, and the books?

Answer: To obtain the power of the Creator means understanding that His power, His revelation in that Kli, which is designed for this, is necessary for me. That is to say, not within my Kli, but rather in the Kli of the other. I take other people’s deficiencies and raise them to the Creator; that is, I ask for the power of their correction from Him, for the discovery of the fulfillment within them.

People want more money, but I know that it’s possible to satisfy this desire only through approaching the Creator. All the unsatisfied desires for money, honor, control, health, security, and problems in education are derived from a lack of Light. This is specifically why people are screaming. They go out to demonstrate in the streets or sit at home and silently curse the whole world and governments, but basically they want Light.

They simply don’t know what this is, like an infant who doesn’t know why he is screaming; he only knows that he hurts! But why he hurts and what needs to be done in order not to cry but to laugh, is unknown to him.

And since I do know this, and therefore, through the reception of the deficiencies of people, what they suppose they are missing, I raise them as I feel them, in a different form already. I feel that they lack Light! And this is what is called turning to the Creator. I work for their sake, as on a higher level, and raise their requests to what is above that, to the next level above me.

In this manner, their prayer, their MAN, which is only: “Give, give, give! Give us food, sex, family, money, respect, information.” I pass these to the Creator and say: “We, which is to say they and I together with them (because they stick to me in my AHP, and we become a single spiritual Partzuf), need your help! We require your Light so that it will correct us and fulfill to give You satisfaction.

And as proof that I truly want to please the Creator, I nullify myself towards the group, the teacher, the study, and the outer world, humanity. I am ready to make concessions to these in order to show the Creator that I truly want to attain bestowal, even just a little, even without intention, but at least a little! And then according to this “small amount” the Light acts on me, and through me, it passes to those below. Thus a link is created: lower—upper—upper upper, and I am like a big brother to the little ones, taking twice as much in order to convey it to others.
[115705]
From the Preparation from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 08/26/13

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How do I organize myself so that all of my thoughts, calculations, examinations, and clarifications will always be directed towards the Creator and not towards myself? This is the only and most essential question: How do I move my attention from myself to the Creator?

As long as the person has not begun to feel the Creator through the Light that Reforms, at least a little, even not clearly, but to some degree, he begins to feel how some kind of power pulls him, brings him closer to it, organizes his whole life, until then he has no ability to think about Him. With his powers he never can move his attention from himself to some strange object that doesn’t even exist for him.

He never thinks about what is around him, about the many strange objects, he doesn’t take others into account, except if he is dependent on them. Therefore the environment that tells us about the importance of the Creator, the power of bestowal, the field in which people are found and which organizes for us the entire process through which we pass all the time is so important to us.

Even though we still don’t perceive, don’t feel, or don’t identify this power, still the environment can awaken in us the feeling of its importance all the time. That is how we can return time after time to the thoughts and calculations that focus on the Creator, even if they are all for my own personal good, but in spite of it all they are linked to Him. This state is called Lo Lishma.

And if we seek the discovery of the Creator, in other words, some kind of thought about bestowal within my work, then it can come only from the point in the heart. There are people in whom a basis exists, a gene with information (Reshimo), a spark of the characteristic of bestowal that we had before the shattering of the soul of Adam HaRishon. It follows, that they have some kind of spark from that shattered “Screen” that attracts them towards spirituality.

Which is to say, the person himself doesn’t do anything in particular himself, and simply within him the spark is awakened. This doesn’t depend on him; it is simply that this is how he was born. And if he arrives within a group of Kabbalists, then the group and the study can ignite that spark in him. Thus, time after time he receives awakening: a little more and a little more, in that he overcomes himself, sometimes by himself, sometimes with the help of the teacher and the group. Thus he attracts the Light that strengthens his link with the Creator.

He no longer feels just a vague aspiration like before he reached the group, rather a little more. But this is still a very distant link; you see he is not ready to think about the Creator all the time, rather only at unique moments when he gets extra illumination. And then he is awakened and reminded with the higher power. But in general, he moves according to the desire to receive in an egoistic form, which is to say, to acquire additional knowledge and feeling, and not in order to be concerned about the Creator. This is an artificial turning towards the Creator, as if it is to get the characteristic of bestowal.

But that is how the time passes, and thanks to a person’s present efforts, the Light does its work time after time. He begins to understand that he remains empty and doesn’t reach any success. From the sensation of emptiness within the desire to receive and thanks to the illumination that he receives within his point in the heart, he begins to understand that without help from above he has no chance of getting out of this state. And in order to truly reach bestowal, it is necessary to go out of the ego, to rise from the world in which he is now found, and to leave all the previous values, all that was close and dear to him.

If he feels attractions like these to go outside of himself, then he must be careful that this will not be on his own account; that is, he must clarify more deeply what he is doing this for, what it means to bring joy to the Creator. This must transform into the entire goal for him, the most precious thing in life, more precious than everything that he has in his world. Everything that he had until today was absolutely nothing in comparison to the opportunity to give satisfaction to the Creator.

This is to say, he aspires to this not because he hopes that in this way he will organize all the rest of the things in his life, and not because he hopes to benefit from greater fulfillment when he uses the Light egoistically; rather, he strives to understand and to feel what the true meaning of Lishma is, the intention in order to bestow without any reference to himself. Therefore all the actions must be towards the other, and only when they are towards others can they bring bestowal for the sake of the Creator.

The person doesn’t feel any reason for these actions, he has no desire for this, rather he aspires to this artificially, really forcing himself to think about this. But thus, time after time, when he thinks about this and discusses this with the friends in workshops, clarifying all these concepts, with his efforts he attracts the Light that Reforms and begins to approach the truth. He must check in what place he wants to receive benefit from this advancement.

In this way, a person gradually exits himself—through the other to the Creator. The Light gradually will grant to him the characteristic of bestowal.

And it is impossible to forget that specifically these states, when the person is devoid of sensation, emotion, and excitement, is confused and foggy, these are most useful for giving effort, if he tries with all his power to bring himself to consciousness. Therefore in the work the descents are more important than the ascents. The ascents are designed only to give an impression, an example, of what must be attained during a descent.
[115282]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/04/13

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Spirituality begins from restriction. Restriction means that a person doesn’t ask for anything for himself. His desire is closed before his own pleasure and he uses it only in order to bestow. If he can bestow, he uses it, and if he can’t, then he doesn’t use it. It is as if there is a switch in him, a trigger that works only in one direction.

It is like a computer that can be in a state of 0 or of 1 and nothing but that. If there is no one he can bestow upon, it is a state of 0, and if there is someone he can bestow upon, it is 1. This means that I open myself, accept the deficiencies of the other, and convey them to the Creator. This is how Malchut that wants to resemble Bina works. It restricts its own desire, and locks it for using for its own sake, but thanks to that, it can feel the deficiencies of others. This is called “make your desire His desire,” but with regards to the created beings.

By acquiring the desires of others, I convey them to the Creator like a prayer, MAN, and get a response according to the rule: “The first born receives twice as much,” for himself and for the lower. I don’t need anything for myself, but I receive twice as much since my desire has changed and now I include in it the deficiency of the other. Thus I fill the two of us.

I fill my desire to bestow and not the desire to receive! When I convey a desire to bestow to another, I first convey the Light that Reforms to him, and then incorporate him in me, which means that I add him to myself like to the AHP of the upper. When he is ready to annul himself before me, I convey to him the force that allows him to build his own vessel and to receive the filling for himself.

It turns out that our work with the public is divided into many phases. First we have to work among us in order to acquire the desire to bestow upon the public. It should not be a desire to bestow for the sake of self-pleasure but truly in order to bestow. I work with my desire to receive only in order to bestow.

Thus we awaken the public, and they are impressed by the fact that they can fulfill their egoistic desires. But thanks to the connection with us and the mutual incorporation, they receive the force of correction and correct their desires. Then we can raise a double prayer, MAN, and receive a double response: for ourselves and for those we asked for, and thus we fill our collective vessels of receiving.
[115218]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/13

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