Question: It is very difficult for us to bear the death of relatives. How do people who are involved with spiritual development relate to this?

Answer: Shortly after I began to study with my teacher, it so happened that the mother of three of his students died. I went for to express my condolences and was very surprised to see that they behaved as before, talking calmly with each other.

As time passed, I understood that this is precisely what the relationship to death should be.

Why do we perceive temporal, petty, insignificant existence, that amounts to only escaping from suffering, as so special? What is it?

After all, this life amounts to attempts to place ourselves in a more comfortable situation every moment, to suffer less. That is what life is! Why should I grieve if people are moving away from this?

There is a particular animal fear of losing even this tiny speck of life, even though according to the wisdom of Kabbalah it is not even called life; it is a kind of inner illusion!

We were originally created to begin from this state, to search for the true meaning of existence. If a person doesn’t use the opportunities that are given to him in this world to go out to a higher state and continue his life from there, then there is nothing to be done. Naturally this will continue until all of us achieve the feeling of the upper world.
[170775]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/1/15

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Question: How do texts like The Book of Zohar and Shamati work and influence me when I read them together with others, and how do they influence me if I read them alone? And which is preferable?

Answer: In both cases the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) is awakened; we must read them both alone and together, but it is more effective to read them together.

Question: Which particular prayers are worthwhile for me to read before going to sleep so that sleeping will open me spiritually?

Answer: Any part of an article by Baal HaSulam or Rabash that seems appropriate to you.
[171406]

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Question: Is our corporeal development a result of our spiritual development?

Answer: No. Our corporeal development is meant to bring a person to a state in which he realizes that corporeality doesn’t bring him pleasure, truth, or the meaning of life. Corporeality shows a person that eventually he has to direct his energy in a totally different direction, toward attaining the internal meaning of nature and not its application to satisfy his body. Currently we are serving our body (as an animal) by creating the most comfortable situation for it at any given moment.

Question: I envy my friends who engage in volunteer work, for example, in helping people survive in the hot spots on the globe, or participating in helping survivors after earthquakes or floods. Can this kind of work give me a real meaning in life?

Answer: No, because you are saving bodies from death, and a person’s body is a beastly entity. Saving a soul is more meaningful because the soul is eternal and exists above time.
[170597]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/25/15

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Question: You once said on one of your programs, that even through helping an old lady to cross the street, a person develops spiritual Kelim (vessels) within himself.

That is, are you saying good deeds have a positive impact on the entire existence of a person (including all his incarnations), and the person receives mercy from the Creator?

Answer: Absolutely! Even though there won’t be any revelation of the Creator by this, it will bring the person to a group, which creates the conditions for disclosure.
[171402]

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Question: How must one relate internally to other people’s suffering?

Answer: With balance, as with everything.

Question: If an event happens in my life that makes me very happy and I want to thank the Creator, how should I behave in such a case? Can there be thanks to the Creator that is not egoistic?

Answer: You should always thank the Creator and for everything.

Question: Why don’t I feel that the group is correcting me? I was an egoist, and that is how I remain. Likewise, there is no feeling of unity, and I have not found any special happiness in a group. What should I do?

Answer: You must force yourself to yearn for the unity of the whole group until you feel an attitude toward them as toward your beloved children. In our world, only a state like this will create a spiritual field of revelation for you.
[171400]

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Question: What determines the life expectancy of different people? After all, both wonderful people and vile killers die young. Could it be that, from the point of view of the maturation of the soul in this current life, the first souls already have ascended higher, while the latter are hopeless, so they are taken away in order to be reborn?

Answer: All of this relates to reincarnations. No calculations are made here regarding the bodies. You can be a good or evil person, but in egoistic terms, it does not matter.

The calculation focuses only on the general system in order to bring it optimally to complete correction. Therefore, it is only about the fulfillment of a person’s soul. The body is given to a person so that by his free will he will place himself in the general soul in connection with others in total love and bestowal.

If he can do that, he finds his soul. Then the calculation is according to his state at any given moment.

If he cannot do it, he is given a certain amount of time to be incorporated willingly into the general society and perhaps even into the spiritual world. If he doesn’t use this opportunity, it is taken away from him, and he moves on to the next life. The same spiritual gene will be dressed in another body with new data in a new environment, and he will still be given an opportunity to fulfill his mission.
[170773]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/1/15

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Question: You once said that if a man and a woman are mutually connected, it is a powerful means to reveal the Creator, and a person who has this field of work is very lucky and doesn’t need much time to fulfill it, but actually only a few minutes a day.

But what exactly should you do during this time? What is the best way to study the wisdom of Kabbalah with one’s spouse?

Answer: It doesn’t really matter. What’s important is the effort a couple makes to feel as one spiritual whole in the face of various interferences that come along all of the time above which they must reach an upper agreement for the sake of their spiritual advancement.

Question: How should a person behave correctly and harmoniously from a spiritual perspective in situations of conflict with loved ones? On the one hand, the ego constantly finds different tricks to make people break up, and it is scary to realize how helpless we are. On the other hand, I truly cherish and value my relationships.

Answer: Try to understand that all of the connections between us go through the Creator. This will fine tune your perspective in all your relationships.
[171236]

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Question: Did your teacher Rabash tell you about the meaning of life right away when you came to him?

Answer: I wish he had explained it to me that way… When I first came to my teacher I asked him after two or three lessons whether I was in the right place in order to attain the meaning of life. I had searched in many places before that and so I wanted to know whether I should spend my whole life studying with him.

His answer was very simple: “Go find out. I am not keeping you and not driving you away, but you should know that you have to check and find out that you are really in the right place.”

He did not try to convince me that I was in the right place to fill my body and soul since I wouldn’t have believed him anyway. This is the reason he said: “Go find out!”

This is what made me understand that I really was in the right place, where I was not being deceived and I was actually being taught the method of attaining spirituality. Later on I discovered it myself and could check whether it was indeed so or not. This is the wisdom of Kabbalah, it gives you tools but all the rest is up to you.
[170580]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/25/15

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Question: Why doesn’t the soul remember the experience of previous lives?

Answer: Because it has nothing to do with physical life. The soul is what we invest in others, when we are found with them and feel our eternal state through them, still in this world, in this life, in this body.

The structure of the soul is composed of ten Sefirot. We must know how to assemble and give life to this system so that all parts of the soul will complement each other mutually. For example, if ten people gather together and want to create mutual relationships like these, they can dissolve into each other, and each one of them can go out of himself and not remain a little egoist.

When I go out of myself into my nine friends and each one of them does this too, a network of connections is organized between us and we begin to feel that we are within it.This is the feeling of crossing the Machsom (barrier). Within me I am an egoist, but when I am included within them, I am an altruist, and then the common desire and intention that we create between us is called the soul.

The network of our mutual relationships with the characteristic of bestowal is called the “Kli of the soul,” and the particular form of the upper Light that is revealed within it is called the Creator.
[170771]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/1/15

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Question: Is it possible to get the right results in a group that is composed of two people?

Answer: It is very difficult, but possible.

Question: What is to be done with the fear of approaching old age and the problems that are connected to it?

Answer: There is no old age; there is a transition to another state. It is only necessary to make it good. Don’t worry! Begin to study and you will succeed in many things and won’t have any fear of old age.

Question: Why invest effort if all is predestined?

Answer: That’s right; everything is destined. But until we make efforts to achieve this destiny, it will only be destined.

Question: What does the wisdom of Kabbalah say about the Messiah?

Answer: The Messiah is a force that helps a person develop and reach the sensation of the upper world. “Messiah” is derived from the word, “Limshoch” (pulling), meaning to pull and take the person out of the feeling of this world.

Question: Why are people thrown out of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: It is because they underestimate what they are giving up. Otherwise, where is he going? The usual beastly life?

Question: Is spiritual advancement possible under comfortable conditions? Or is it necessary for our “beast” to suffer?

Answer: It is not necessary to suffer! The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t talk about asceticism.

Question: When you study the wisdom of Kabbalah, the desire to earn more money and so forth is lost. How is it possible to force myself at least to begin to change something?

Answer: Why? You become internally richer, not externally. And the external still comes and goes. You waste a lot of time and energy in making a profit. Think: why are you doing this? Is it to seem successful in the eyes of those around you? Are they worth all of that effort?

Question: How is it possible to save a soul if you are confused or you are confusing them?

Answer: The right environment is necessary for that. It is also imperative for rapid advancement.

Question: My children are ages 9 and 11.  What answer should I give them to the question: “What is the meaning of life?”

Answer: Life is given to us to experience the eternal and infinite world in this world.
[170609]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/25/15

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