The world is ruled by one force of bestowal. This force is called the Creator since He created the quality opposite to Himself, the desire to enjoy, in order to raise it to His level. In this way, this desire can bring itself to perfection.

That is why all of our work consists of reaching the quality of bestowal. However, we do not disappear into that, but we change the form of our desire, the initial material, to bestowing. It continues to act with all of its fierce strength and power with which it used to think only of itself before and is revealed as an unclean egoistic system, opposite to bestowal, but now this desire corrects itself and the form of its action. Now, instead of receiving, it desires to bestow.

Such a change happens due to the Light that Reforms. However, until such a change happens inside of the desire to enjoy, it absolutely does not understand what is being talked about here since it is completely located in egoistic qualities, meaning in thoughts and desires for oneself.

The change that it undergoes is truly a new birth, similar to how something develops from a drop of seed in which there is nothing besides internal information about a future person, and in the end, it finally turns into an independent personality which thinks, understands, feels, and answers for its deeds. Where does it all come from? Is it simply out of emptiness? However, in exactly the same way, our own spiritual birth happens.

This process is incomprehensible to us and hidden from us. Until we experience serious changes, we completely do not understand how all of that is being realized on matter, how the Light works, how it changes our qualities, and what is left for us from each of the levels from which we have ascended.

Man becomes confused and does not understand where he really is. It is said that the Creator is the first, and He is also the last. So, where is the human in this? Perhaps he is at least in the middle? There is an initial state of the world of infinity, and there is a final state, the return back to Infinity, and we are on the path somewhere in the middle between the former and the latter.

In addition, what can we add from ourselves to the Creator’s actions, with whom everything begins and ends? We only can speed up our development to show that we want to move toward being similar to the Creator and to not to be pushed from behind by suffering.

The Creator has created a desire to enjoy inside of me that feels the good and the bad in relation to itself, and, now, with the help of these good and bad feelings, He can control me! However, if I am controlled only by my pleasant and unpleasant feelings, then I am acting like an animal. If I want to move forward to that same goal through my own efforts, then I need to feel its importance, to receive the strength for development, acting against my nature.

I must rise above the egoistic perception of good and bad toward the perception of truth and falsehood, and consider them as the good and the bad. These forces must pull me forward, having replaced pleasure and suffering with themselves, by which I am being pushed from behind. This is called the level of a human, not an animal.

That is only possible to achieve by the means of an environment that instills into me such values, such an importance of truth and falsehood that provide the strength for my development. However, in order for that to happen, I must listen to the environment, meaning that all of my work on the attainment of the Creator and toward reaching the goal of creation—to rise from the natural feeling of good and bad toward reason, from the animal level toward the human level, from the perception of pleasure and suffering toward the perception of truth and falsehood—all of that is work with the environment.

My goal is to find an environment that has these goals and values, and to be impressed by it. Thanks to that, I will receive the strength to develop as a human and not as an animal since an animal moves only because it sees a sack of grain in front of it or if it receives blows from behind. However, a human considers pleasure and suffering to be the approaching or distancing of the quality of bestowal, the truth and the falsehood.
[84157]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/12, Shamati #13, “The Eighteenth Prayer”

Related Material:
The Days And Nights Of The Spiritual Path
A Light That Is Brought Closer By The Group’s Telescope
Reins For The Ego

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention - 3 Comments →

Question: How does our connection become the basis for the revelation of the spiritual levels?

Answer: Every level is a world that you feel, a world that is woven by the connection among all the souls. The first connection that has come from the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) gradually diminished until it was shattered and became totally detached in our world. Now, from this point, the ascent in the same levels of connection begins, and it is the only thing you have to reveal.

The “matter” of the souls is the desire to receive and the connection among them is the system we study about. The Ten Sefirot, the spiritual Partzufim, are all the essence of different methods of mutual connection of the souls between them.

On the whole, a whole body is thus formed as we rise to Malchut of Ein Sof, and all the connections are 100% bestowal without any obstacles and deficiencies. Then all the resistance in the transition among us disappears and the connection is immediately fulfilled in infinite speed. This is the state of Ein Sof.

The adhesion indicates a simple thing: What I have at a certain moment, you have too, and vice versa. This communication is unlimited. It isn’t confined to time and the resistance of the ego. The “resistor” among us disappears and our desires cooperate freely and to their full extent.

Question: How should it be expressed in the workshops?

Answer: Our adhesion during the workshops is an effort: We want to unite so strongly, as much as we can imagine, so that each one will lose his feeling of self and we will feel one desire, one thought, one whole. By these efforts, from the point of unity, we think about a solution to the question we were given by the teacher. The solution is within the connection.

Therefore, during the workshop we yearn to find the answer through the unity. Each time we search for a solution, we want to attain it by the unity, without using our logic. After all, we are not going to logically examine the words of the Kabbalists.

Without connection, there is no point in sitting in a circle. So what do we need it for? For an intellectual conversation or a scientific debate? No, the mission is given only in order to create a new quality. Then by feeling the collective quality, you find the solution.

The workshop is only meant to create a collective vessel that belongs to an upper level. We try to reach it as hard as we can, but if there is no solution, it means that we have not succeeded.

There is no point mentioning the connection while we are in the process, it has to be the goal from the beginning. Can we come to a workshop not in order to connect, and in this connection find the next level or at least find the solution to the question that leads to it?
[83843]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

Related Material:
The Workshops: Not Just Verbal Debates But An Ascent To Unity
Ascending To The Top Of The Pyramid
A World Structured At My Request

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Unity, Workshops - No Comments →

Question: For what level of preparation of students is the congress in Kharkov intended?

Answer: I think this is a congress of unity that depends not on the level of a person’s preparation, but on his aspiration. If he understands that he must attain the method of revelation of the upper world, advance towards it, make at least such a serious step, and perhaps even reveal the upper world for himself—it is possible since it depends only on our joint efforts—then he is a welcome guest, friend, and participant.
[83854]

Related Material:
The Convention In Kharkov: The Next Degree
How Best Can I Prepare For The Convention?
A Jump Into Eternity

Filed under: Conventions, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Question: How can you check that you really understand the lesson from the point connection with the group?

Answer: A person reaches connection out of despair, when he despairs of all his actions and sees that they will lead to nothing, and that he must do something. He thinks about himself, about his entire life, about the efforts he has made in vain, and eventually comes to the conclusion that he only can attain the goal through the group.

The group is a spiritual structure and not the faces that you see around you. It is a spiritual force that is revealed in a very realistic manner, like some safe shelter. It is like a “flying saucer” that as I enter it, I have a chance to succeed and if I am not in it, I have no chance.

A person must understand this clearly in order to keep this thought. He should know that by staying in the group, which he sees as a collection of spiritual forces, he will undoubtedly reach a good result. The group enables him to breathe, and without it, he has no access to the oxygen hose.

However, a person only can reach this decision when he feels despair from his own powers. Our discussions and workshops enable us to reach this conclusion faster. However, what I hear are people speaking about what they have read and not from their hearts.

I give a short introduction, and then I ask a question about it. The question may be a continuation of what has been said; it can be in contrast to it or somehow related to what has been said. However, it is all done intentionally. The answer shouldn’t come from the mind, but from the point of connection that should be attained within the discussion circle.

Then, the answer will be the answer to our prayer. The discussion must turn into a prayer that we all want to clarify and, together, to find the answer. During the discussion, each of the ten friends says something, and thus we complete one another. Each one annuls himself before the others by raising them and respecting their opinion. Thus, we build our self-annulment and the attribute of bestowal that is above all of us.

The group is not a physical assembly, but it acquires a spiritual value. This is because the annulment of the ego and the desire to be incorporated in the friends is already a spiritual action. The topic of the discussion spurs us on to clarify our unity, the connection, and the work. All this turns into a prayer (MAN).

Within the connection in the group that we attain by this prayer, we must receive an answer (MAD). The answer to the prayer of many (MAD) is called the center of the group. We feel collective warmth, a collective feeling, the force that supports us to such an extent that we are scared to come out of there. I don’t want to come out of there. I want to remain inside this center and to grow there. This is the purpose of the workshop, which you have to try to attain with every 15-minute question discussion.
[83768]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
Finding A “Human”
The Workshops: Not Just Verbal Debates But An Ascent To Unity
One Life And Common Prayer For Everyone

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Question: How best can I prepare for the convention in Kharkov, Ukraine? What depends personally on me to make it most effective?

Answer: First, it is advisable to attend our classes because they are revolving around this topic.

Secondly, you should read the materials required for the convention that have been published in Russian and other languages. I am guided by the fact that the convention will be completely in Russian. Of course, there will be translation into other languages.
[83080]

Related Material:
A Jump Into Eternity
Advice In Preparation For The Convention
It Must Happen Here And Now

Filed under: Conventions, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Question: Which action is most effective?

Answer: An act with a stronger intention. An act without an intention for the sake of others is empty because it isn’t the physical act that bestows, but the intention that accompanies it: “Why was it performed?” or more precisely, “to whose benefit, mine, or others?”

Thus, if we perform all kinds of good acts and deeds, as benefactors, “the beautiful souls,” but without the correct intention in order to bring humanity to one identity that the Creator (nature) determined from the beginning in the root of our advancement, then all of our actions will completely fail because they won’t have the force of the Light, the one force that changes everything. If we make efforts without this force, we are performing only mechanical movements.

Thus we must, before performing any action, learn to perform the correct intention so that the action will invite the force of correction and in this way reach the desired result, which is the correction bringing betterment for humanity. But if we do something without an intention, then for that act there won’t be a correct and good result, and then it is preferred not to do it at all.

For example, protest actions, even though in the beginning it seemed that they would attain something, like lowering prices, etc., as the year continued there wasn’t a trace left of the lowering of prices, and people were just more and more disappointed and didn’t want to fight for themselves.

Thus we need to learn to perform acts that produce correct and desired results. This is what integral education is designated to do.
[82101]

Related Material:
At The Peak Of Intention
Exile From Intention
All The Difference Is In Intention

Filed under: Education, Integral Upbringing, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Which requests reach the Creator?

Answer: First, we have to understand that if a request doesn’t come from a collective request, it is not accepted at all. People cry to the Creator from the bottom of their hearts when they break down and at the point of death, but nothing helps. Why? It is because their prayer doesn’t go through the filter, which is the only way a request is accepted. It is only through the system, only through the connection between us, no matter if it is good or bad, it is only with regard to the connection that the request is accepted.

Question: How can I tie my desire with someone else’s desire when I don’t feel it at all?

Answer: Try to feel or at least cry because you cannot feel. After all, you do understand that your single, individual desire cannot act in any way. If two arrive, that’s great! Well, what do you want? To establish a connection, to unite? You quarrel? But you are two; do you clarify the relationship between you? That’s good!”

Why is it time for correction now? It is because people begin to feel that there is something wrong in the connection between them. But was it okay before? Before, there was no connection. Today, we feel that there is something wrong and that we have to correct it; so the correction begins from our time onward.

If we don’t take into account the connection between us, no matter what it is like, then there is nothing with which we can come to the Creator. Personally, I cannot do anything; there is nothing to correct in me. The only thing we have to correct is the connection between me and others.

Question: You told us once about the system that converts an unreal request into a real one. Did you refer to the request of the individual or of the general?

Answer: There is no request of the individual! The fact that I cry out by myself doesn’t mean that my request is individual. The main thing is what I cry about. This is what determines whether my prayer is a prayer of many or not.

People think that if a Minyan (ten men) gathers, it is a prayer. It can be one person who asks for connection, for the correction of the system, and then it called “a prayer of many.”

So, when we approach the study, it is very important to come with the right request. Otherwise, the study distances us, and, instead of the elixir of life, it becomes the potion of death. We see that people run away, escape, and fall. Why does that happen? It is because the same Light that operates in the wrong way brings you darkness, which means that it leads you to the goal through the long path.
[82775]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
Don’t Cry In The Wilderness
What Is A True Prayer Of The Society?
A Prayer For Society

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 32: And when one is rewarded with being entirely in the will to bestow and not at all for oneself, he will be rewarded with obtaining equivalence of form with his Upper NRNHY, which extend from one’s origin in Ein Sof in the first state, through the pure ABYA, and will immediately extend and clothe him in a gradual manner.

We have a very big desire to receive that grows as we climb the levels of correction. This process begins from the moment we yearn for connection.

The desire is revealed gradually. First we correct it on the level of “to bestow in order to bestow,” which in Kabbalistic terms is called Hafetz Hesed, the level of Bina, Hassadim. Then we correct the desire on the level of “to receive in order to bestow,” which is already the level of Hochma.

On the level of Bina, all our evil inclination seems to be corrected, at least since it doesn’t have the intention of “in order to receive.” Then the mistakes turn into merits and the evils turn into mistakes. We attain a kind of neutrality, now our desire to receive is no longer evil.

Then we continue our work until all the evil inclination becomes good, which means that it receives in order to bestow. This is the reason that Kabbalists sometimes divide the process into two, the correction of the desire and its final reformation to bestowal.

Related Material:
The Enemy Inside
Three Steps To The Creator
To The Fourth Floor For Love

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: If a person has taken our courses, but is still against connection, can we call it the “evil inclination?”

Answer: No. If after taking a couple of courses I still don’t understand that the rejection I feel towards the group is evil, if I accept this rejection, I have not revealed the evil inclination inside me.

The whole point is seeing the evil inclination in this negative desire. I have to determine this by myself and not just hear about it from someone. I have to feel that this attribute harms me as it doesn’t allow me to enter spirituality and attain the goal. It is this attribute that stands in my way and if I don’t overcome it, if I don’t tie myself to the group, I have no chance.

I have to actually see that the evil inclination blocks my way. It seems to allow me to form a connection but the next moment it detaches me from my friends. Eventually, except for very short moments, I am constantly detached from the group.

Do I perceive that as evil the way I should? After all, it has to come to a level that I will not be able to stand my ego and will do everything in my power to get rid if it: “My death is better than my life. I have to kill it, since it is my enemy.” We must feel that it is the only enemy we have, hiding inside, like a cancerous tumor, like a snake that I must remove.

But if I don’t feel that, I haven’t revealed the evil inclination yet. So I don’t need the Torah as a “spice” yet, which means as a method of correction. It is only by revealing the tyranny of the evil that I look for a solution. I am totally contaminated, it is absorbed inside me and it is impossible to escape it. So what should I do?

By having no choice and feeling helpless, I begin to realize that there is a force that can help me, which is the Light. It is no longer an abstract concept. I feel that it exists and look for an opportunity to demand it; I look for the inner feeling that will enable me to draw it so that it will free me from the evil.

All this comes only when we begin the practical work of connection…
[82577]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Bestowal In Two Phases
Evil Is Revealed In The Connection
A Shadow Of The Evil Inclination On The Background Of Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

From an article by Rabash: “The old’s contradiction—a construction, youth’s construction—a contradiction.” “The old” are those who are used to God’s work, “Youth” are those who are just starting their work. A contradiction is a descent or a fall, which means that first there was an ascent in the work that is considered a construction, which means that they considered the ascents, but the contradiction is when they felt a fall, which comes from the concealment of the Creator, which means that the Creator conceals Himself from them, and this is called a contradiction. The old’s contradiction is when they say that the Creator sent them the concealment, so it turns out that they are already in construction, since they believe that the Creator is taking care of them and from this they receive livelihood.

“The old” are those who are already accustomed to the spiritual work, and so they know how to interpret every state, how to approach it and how to make it beneficial. So even their “contradiction” is construction. This is because they don’t forget and hold on to the intention that everything comes from the Creator, even the descent. So it is during the descents, by remaining loyal, by holding on to their faith, to the intention of in order to bestow even during the descents, that by that they construct the ascents. The descent itself turns into an ascent.

The ascent does not come after the descent, but it is the same decent if a person attributes it to the Creator, to the goal of creation, and understands that he feels it in desires to receive and adds the right intention to it: The descent itself becomes an ascent.

A person immediately rises by the descent that is felt in the egoistic desire, by the revelation of the corrupt vessel. Then he stops moving up and down on a wave of ascents and descents. He is always happy about the descents, because it isn’t after they are over, but while still in them, that he adheres to the Creator. So the contradiction that old men feel goes to their construction, since from it they build an even more intense adhesion with the Creator.

The “youth” are those who have no power yet, not enough support from the environment that could stabilize them that enables the turning of the descent into ascent, into adhesion. So they even begin to use their ascents egoistically and enjoy the good feeling, thus forgetting the intention. Then the ascent turns into a descent, and the construction turns into destruction. The state is determined by a person’s intention.
[82404]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12

Related Material:
Make Every Instant More Exalted
Now Do It Yourself!
Separation Brings A Descent, Unity An Ascent

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention - 1 Comment →