Question: How can I constantly see the friends as greater than me?

Answer: The friend is great especially because I depend on him! The goal I want to attain depends on him, and therefore he is so important to me. Second, he is great since it’s the Creator who has brought us together, and has given him to me as a means to attain the goal.

Third, I respect the “Godly part from Above” in him, since the Creator is in it, evoking him and leading him towards the goal. So this is what I respect, the Godly part and not his corporeal attributes. We will gradually discover what the concept of a “friend” actually means. When we begin to see the truth, we will see what it is.

I don’t value the friend himself, but the Godly part in him that gives him a great weight and makes him the greatest in our generation. It’s not an exaggeration and not just nice words. Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma undoubtedly saw his students as the greatest in his generation and greater than himself.

In order to not see the deficiencies in the friend, I have to awaken the love in me. Therefore, it says “love will cover all the sins.” You shouldn’t consider who is more clever, you or the friend. Love should come first.

The lesson should start when each of us sees himself sitting among great people. You should feel that you are like a tiny baby who luckily happened to be in the company of great Kabbalists, trembling with excitement before their greatness. This is actually the way it’s felt, and I am not exaggerating.

This is what the inner feeling should be, while externally we can show disrespect and play an opposite game. Just like the Creator conceals His love and shows us the opposite attitude, so can we show him the opposite external attitude. We will later learn this game when we grow stronger, but in the meantime it’s still too early to play this game since we will be attracted by the disrespect.
[108116]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
With The Friends Under The “Sukkah Of Peace”
Just Try, And Everything Will Work Out
What Do I Value In A Friend?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Love, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: When we are talking about integral learning, we get the impression that there is someone who already understands this method; it’s as if he controls the ordinary person and helps him pass to the next level. Who is organizing all of this for us?

Answer: In our world there are enough people that are not united but who already understand what needs to be done with humanity. Already ninety years ago the academic Vernadsky began to speak about the necessity for the integral unification of society. In his time, this gigantic “brain” had an enormous revelation; he saw the coming form of human development from the start. After that many of his followers appeared both in Russia and in other places. Today this is being discovered everywhere.

Question: All governmental and religious activists know that changing the consciousness of most humans changes society itself and the cooperation between its members, and as a result of this, the principles of managing the government are changed. What will happen to governments? After all, integrality is going to change and format the system.

Answer: On one hand, integrality will format the system, but I don’t think that this will remove the people who are in power. Those found at the peak of the government, the leadership, the economy, these are people who know and possess ability. Perhaps they don’t understand the future system, but they understand the egoistic system. They can organize the process in the right way even if this changes the entire egoistic society. This is to say, these are not ordinary people. They can help the new organization and can participate in it.

A person doesn’t enjoy the dollars that are lying in a safe, rather he enjoys the fulfillment, the feeling of importance, his superiority, that he is higher, stronger, and more important than others. The dollar bill is not fulfilling in itself but rather the spiritual equivalence in the value of this paper which gives security for today and tomorrow. Therefore all of the presently perceived constituents aren’t going anywhere. The power of money is simply going to be eliminated gradually, and in its place will come an absolutely different kind of government, a government of mutual integral cooperation: The more you invest in unity and connection, the more fulfillments you get.
[108440]
From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

Related Material:
Reaching Out To Leaders
The Human Part Of The Engine
When Overcome By Deadly Sleep

Filed under: Egoism, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society, World - No Comments →

Question: We live in the flow of time. There are people who waste a lot of energy learning how to plan their time. Does this depend on how much a person has to do?

Answer: It depends on a person’s desire. Essentially, the internal self-organization of the person depends on his psychological setup, and everyone has their own.

There are people who are very organized internally: They consider each step from the start, they are compelled to plan their day, sometimes even long before they materialize their plan, and this is how they operate all the time. This is “in their blood.” But if there is a desire, it’s possible to learn this.

There has to be a clear task set before an individual, the obligation to carry it out, the desire to fulfill it, and the influence of the environment on him or her. All of it has to be organized in a way that it will work within a person.

On the other hand, there is a worldwide trend of evolutionary development, which changes our desires and values. And therefore, even if we obligate a person to work according to the previous values for attaining goals that are no longer important to him today, it will be very difficult for us to get a good work yield out of him.

This also depends on time. A very serious change in man and society is taking place today. Every people, every civilization (today there are six or seven civilizations in the world) has its own sense of time, and therefore we need to take this into account.

For example, the inhabitants of Africa, China, and South America comprehend time completely differently than the inhabitants of Northern Europe and North America. They have an absolutely different approach, internal sensation of time, and they ascribe different value to time. For some time is money, like an immense potential they were given and now must realize, while for others time flows calmly and they flow together with it.

Question: If the representatives of various civilizations feel time differently, does it mean that the amount of activity done by them will also differ?

Answer: Certainly! If I employ a worker from India, with his mentality and with his relationship to time, or I take a person with a Nordic character, they will have completely different requirements for themselves, for those around them, and for everything.

We need to understand that the sensation of time in various modern civilizations is different. In accord with this we have to plan our interrelationships, attitude to general connections, associations, and so on.
[108688]
From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

Related Material:
Ego And The Sensation Of Time
The Acceleration Of Time
Beyond Time

Filed under: Education, Egoism, Evolution, Integral Upbringing, Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

Baal Hasulam, “The Peace”: These are the words of Rabbi Akiva: “The book is open and the hand writes.” Any state that the generation is in is like a book, and all the evildoers are as writing hands because each evil is carved and written in the book until they accumulate to an amount that the public can no longer bear. At that time, they ruin that evil state and rearrange into a more desirable state. Thus, each and every act is calculated and written in the book, meaning in the state.

And he says, “All who wish to borrow may come and borrow.” This means that he believes that this world is not like an open store without an owner, but that there is an owner present, a shopkeeper who stands in his store and demands of each customer the right price for the merchandise he is taking from the store, meaning toil in His work while he is nourished by that store, in a manner that is certain to bring him to the purpose of creation, as He pleases.

His goal is to attain bestowal. However, a person requires powers to realize this, and he doesn’t have these powers. He takes them on loan, even though he intends it all for bestowal. What is more, this is even if he wants to repay, that is, not to use anything for himself. He uses the entire world for bestowal.

According to the standards of our world, it is impossible to declare that a person like this is taking something on loan. You see that we get a loan for personal benefit. Here, everything is otherwise. Incidentally, the Torah’s prohibition against giving a loan with interest is derived from this. In the spiritual world, no loan must be paid back with more than what had been received.

So, the forces that I don’t have from the start I take on loan, but I am not taking for myself. They are not mine, I only add to them a desire for the sake of bestowal. Instead of the Creator, I bestow to everyone, and my entire goal is only to convey this bestowal skillfully, as if it were from His hands. I have nothing of my own besides my altruistic self that contracts the egoistic desire within it and acts above it. Therefore, essentially, I don’t have anything to return.

Question: In spite of all this, it is not clear: How can a person ask for a loan for himself in spirituality?

Answer: So, I said that this is another kind of loan. You see, I don’t have my own powers of bestowal. Additionally, I (specifically, I) want to give just as the Creator does. I have to transmit and give that which He wishes for the world.

This state is described allegorically with a metaphor that says that the Creator wanted to give the nations of the world the method of correction. However, they could not accept it. So, He used a transitional group called Israel, which means “straight to the Creator.” The people of Israel are like coordinators that connect the upper Light with the AHP. Thanks to this, Malchut can rise to Bina and be “sweetened” there so as to pass the Light from above downward.

So, this is called a loan only because a person doesn’t have the power of bestowal, and he receives this from the Creator. However, he doesn’t use it for himself, as it is customary in our egoistic world. In this world, a person seeks benefit for himself first of all, and afterward, he thinks about benefit for others, whether this is financial matters, well-being, or net pleasure. In spirituality, I ask not for myself. I want to participate in the life of the Creator. This participation is intended entirely for bestowal. For the sake of this, I activate all of my desire to the maximum possible level. Everything else I temporarily keep “locked up” under the restriction.

Question: So, how is it necessary to ask for a loan like this for the goal of bestowal?

Answer: This is called ascent, a request for correction (MAN). From the Creator, I request power to be able to examine, to correct, the deed itself. I want Him to do this, as it is written: “Be clothed in me and perform the deed of bestowal.” It is like an infant asks for help from his mother or simply cries, and the mother comes and helps. The entire problem is to turn into a “crying infant” internally. And it takes time to learn this….
[105531]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/13, “The Peace”

Related Material:
A Fee For Every Moment
The Prayer Of Many For All Of Humanity
The Language Of Communicating With The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Israel, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Torah, World - No Comments →

Question: Baal HaSulam explains that if parents treat their son with absolute love, the son will inevitably begin to hate them instead of returning their love since he won’t worry that the parents will stop loving him. What about the Creator: Will we also begin to hate Him when we discover His absolute love for us?

Answer: We have to reach absolute love towards the Creator in our spiritual work, meaning regardless of whether we receive pleasure or punishment from the Creator. Our spiritual growth is based on developing love while feeling a growing feeling of repulsion until it reaches absolute hate, meaning feeling that the Creator hates us more and more while we develop a growing absolute love towards Him, in order to work in faith above reason.

Thus we can understand why the Creator has created in us desire in which we feel pleasure or pain. But we have to rise above that in a new feeling of bestowal, and then our attitude towards the Creator becomes totally independent of His love since we establish our attitude above the feeling of hate, according to the principle “love will cover all sins.”
[108268]

Related Material:
Love The Lord Your God With All Your Heart
Loving The Tough Father
How Can You Resist Love?

Filed under: Inner Work, Love, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: What is so special about the love of friends that allows me to cover all sins?

Answer: Love of friends covers all sins. After all, if we work on connecting our sparks in the group, then all the other desires surrender to the Light of love despite the fact that they are so opposite from one another to the extent that they actually hate one another. This Light operates on us from above, from the upper level, when it covers us with one blanket, one umbrella, a Sukkah of peace, and obligates all of us to unite, although internally we remain very different.

Question: Do I choose the friend once or anew every day?

Answer: I don’t choose according to corporeal criteria. In the meantime we don’t know why we have been brought into one group from above, he and I. It depends on the root of the soul, on the sentence of the souls, which we will learn about later. But because we are in a group we have to fulfill our freewill and to connect into one system, one group.

Choosing a friend means being loyal to him despite the repulsion and the doubts. I shouldn’t feel any difference between him and me. Every moment the thought and the desire change in me, I have to choose him in the exact same manner, I examine myself and him.
[108153]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
I Choose You, Brothers!
Discover Love In Love
Just Try, And Everything Will Work Out

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work, Love, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: The integral discussion is a very unique program. Basically, people will come to see how problems that interest them can be solved at the roundtable. However, regular talk shows that attract television viewers generally remind one of conflicts or fist fights.

Answer: I always talk only about our need to influence each other in a positive manner, without “opposition.” You might deny this and say that this is incorrect, unimaginable, and unacceptable, that through this kind of a discussion, we won’t attract anyone, but I know only one thing: A problem cannot be solved through argument.

From the screen, I show the television viewer how a problem can be solved without actually touching upon it because the problem exists on level “A,” and I raise the panelists to level “B.” When I take them to this level and maybe even to level “C” or “D,” they transform into something else.

Question: In Wikipedia, it is written that, in a roundtable, people don’t accommodate themselves to the opinion of the other. Rather, they add their own opinion.

Answer: I relate respectfully to the public roundtables, but integral roundtables are something absolutely different. What I mean is that its form is absolutely different. It is only positive!

In no way should you express opposition. Rather, everyone is completed on a new, corrected level. One doesn’t enter into any confrontations or expressions of dissent. In this way, we are playing at being on the next level; we only add. If someone expresses his opinion, I explain that it is possible to do even better, saying, “Adding to what my friend said, I suppose that we can do more of this and that.”

I am always building our next integral level together with the others. This is based only on agreement between us—only on agreement! We always rise higher and higher. This is never done through opposition and contradiction. There is no opposition and contradiction!

Question: However, if there are no arguments or reservations, we cannot reach a decision.

Answer: If this is a true and proper workshop, the people are like children playing at building a common home. This makes it more exciting and engaging for them than if they were destructive or directed against each other.

I see how children instinctively use this when they want to play together and not alone. When they are interested in the results of their labor becoming some kind of structure, like trains or cities, then something will turn around and they will work together.
[108072]
From KabTV’s “Wisdom of Crowds” 5/14/13

Related Material:
Summing Up The Roundtable Discussion
In A Playful Atmosphere
The Court as a Form of Understanding of Human Essence

Filed under: Children, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Television, Workshops - No Comments →

Question: After the Integral Education lessons, people sit in circles and begin to discuss problems. How is this done?

Answer: Generally a lesson with the presentation of clips, pictures, and even breaks goes on for a maximum of one hour, more than this would be difficult for people to keep up with. After that, they must internalize the material that they have learned.

After the talk comes the workshop which must include those questions that were touched upon during the talk in perhaps a slightly different form. So everyone will internalize them, people need to talk about them with friends in the circles. They need to be discussed, felt in the form of questions, in the form of doubts, in the form of some direction, intention, so that the people can reach that opinion to which we wanted to bring them to from the beginning, but now through discussions with others.

From the start we can say to a person that even if he doesn’t agree with something, now he must give a secondary importance to his disagreement. Suppose that he has pre-existing prejudices from the society in which he has been educated and has lived. He must put these prejudices to the side and try, on the contrary, to be an advocate for our opinion and to convince everyone else that the future for which we are now yearning is the only correct and possible one from the present condition in which we now exist. We give him time for this, some advice, and carry on a discussion in this spirit.

That is, we are not trying to lead students into a discussion, but rather to put them into a state where they will imagine the next world, the coming state, play with it, protect it, and convince others that it is correct. Through discussion, a person will begin to see that he gradually truly agrees with it. Therefore we always direct the student not to be defensive and resistant, not to argue; rather, we direct him with positive influences to rise to the state to which we want to bring him.

Question: Is it possible to use the integral method to solve specific problems?

Answer: When we begin to use the integral method, then specific problems will be solved on their own. If I reach a collective where there are differences of opinion and problems, I don’t talk about them at all, I don’t touch upon them. In no way am I going to awaken the “beast” who sits in every one of them because one “match” can set fire to the whole world. This would be the wrong approach. Only by divesting (shedding) ourselves of all problems will we direct ourselves towards our connection.
[108076]
From KabTV’s “Wisdom of Crowds” 5/14/13

Related Material:
Summing Up The Roundtable Discussion
In A Playful Atmosphere
The Court as a Form of Understanding of Human Essence

Filed under: Collective Soul, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Workshops - No Comments →

Question: What is the most important criterion I can use to check what kind of friends I should adhere to?

Answer: You should get closer to those who constantly attend the lessons, engage in dissemination, and take part in the duties. These people can be a role model for me even by their external behavior and by their corporeal earthly actions. Therefore, I want to adhere to them.

It makes no difference what a person’s character is and exactly what kind of work he does in the group. What’s important is that he comes every day and takes part in everything. It is best to adhere to such people who don’t stand out in the group because of their special attributes but are loyal to it and give it all their powers.
[108798]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
I Choose You, Brothers!
Which Group Do I Choose?
Lift Your Head To See The Friends

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

Question: What is it exactly that makes the group strong? What attributes should we work on?

Answer:  We shouldn’t value the power of the group by the number of people in it; that is a wrong estimation since there is a difference between the number of different people and their inner preparation. So, it is impossible to judge everyone according to the same parameters.

In Russia, for example, it is easy to organize a group of more than a hundred people while, in the US, it is difficult to gather even ten people. We cannot compare success by the size of the group. What’s important is the quality, which is hard to identify.

All of Eastern Europe, and especially Russia, is where Kabbalists were very active in the last generations. The most important Kabbalist in the history of the wisdom of Kabbalah after the Ari was Baal Shem Tov, who had many followers and students all over Belarus and the Ukraine who simply “plowed the ground” there so that their ideas were in the air. As a result, there were a great number of Kabbalists there from Poland, Galicia, and further to the east.

Consequently, the people who live there, and especially the Russian people, have a special sense, a special inclination for Kabbalah. That’s how the influence of the surrounding Light is revealed. Therefore, it is impossible to compare this region with Western Europe where just as many Jews and intelligent, educated people live and still the great inclination for spirituality has not been revealed. This is called “ancestral merit.”
[108790]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Empty Philosophy Or Practical Science?
Is History Repeating Itself?
A New Level Of Unity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →