Question: If a person must be ready to remain in a state of “smallness,” where can he get the desire and the motivation to advance?

Answer: But I want to advance in order to be more like the Creator! The Creator is an example of humility for us. I must reach a state in which I feel as if I don’t exist, just as the Creator does not exist for me now. Thus, I become like Him.

It seems that I really must fight myself in order to attain this, but this a wonderful war since in it, I need the Creator so that He will fight in my place. If I fought this war by myself, I would be in a critical situation.

However, since I need the Creator’s help, it makes me extremely happy. It is because, now, I have the reason to turn to Him.
[99607]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
We Should Learn To Be An Iron Pillar
The Creator Governs With Love
When All Doubts Will Dissipate

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

Question: Tomorrow is international “Safer Internet Day,” and it is dedicated to the problems of the virtual environment which online users surf. Surfing the net today involves many problems and threats both for children and for adults. Can we light up this labyrinth of dark “alleys?”

Answer: We are talking about labor pains. The Internet is indeed a common meeting place, everyone’s “common market.” I think that it should go through the recognition of evil, through a cleansing process; it should understand itself better and the reason it was created. In the meantime, this virtual labyrinth is like the Wild West, but people are gradually maturing and gradually systematize this “territory.”

Generally speaking, humanity is getting acquainted with itself on this network. It is like a mirror, and so on the whole, I suppose that it is a positive process. Perhaps it should be hastened, but we should be careful of corrupting it. The corruptions on the way will only generate new problems. People want to enjoy this tool, but they cannot manage it. Eventually they will reach the recognition of evil and will understand what they should actually do.

But if the network is limited and regulated according to the old way or if it is cut off, it will not help. Humanity is used to external limitations, while we contend that people should be educated, that the limitation should come naturally from within and not artificially from the outside. Unless people understand this, no measures will help to bring about any positive change. The Internet will still be a place where people vent all the evil they have on one another. However, if we take care of people, then this global network will undergo a healing process. There is no other means; it is the only solution.

So let’s hope that people will reach it as soon as possible, and then the Internet will really be a safe place.
[99599]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

Related Material:
Wonderland On The Internet
The Internet As The Means Of Attaining The Goal
The Internet As Evolution Accelerator

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Internet, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: During the process of online integral learning, can people participate in “roundtables” they are watching? In other words, is it possible to equate a live “roundtable” to a recorded “roundtable?”

Answer: Of course. I am convinced that this really works to transform people in an integral way. You must engage the virtual audience in the discussion circle that you are showing him and make him a participant. If there are nine people, make him the tenth. For example, there are nine people in a circle, where each expresses his opinion regarding the question at hand. And your audience member joins in.

You must give him an opportunity to become acquainted with the others, to express himself, etc.

They make recordings for musicians with only the orchestral part recorded, and then I add my solo to the recording; they left in the necessary pauses for me to play. For example, I have a two-minute solo, the recording plays, then stops, giving me the time to play. This is how to make time to allow viewers to participate in the discussion.

Comment: But no one is listening to him and he knows it.

Answer: What is the difference? It doesn’t matter. He is still involved in the conversation, the discussion.

Is it really different when I play to a recording of an orchestra? I play the CD, hear loud music, and suddenly silence, and then I come in with my violin. Does it make me feel less or not a part of the performance?

Right now the performances of singers and musicians have become like a theater. Before this, they used to stand like a statue, but now they need to move, dance, and participate in the common action.

Therefore, virtual viewers must be actively involved in the common discussion because it is very easy to tune into the field of spiritual, integral energy.
[99591]
From a “Talk On Integral Upbringing” 1/20/13

Related Material:
Roundtable: A Tool For Integration
The Internet As The Means Of Attaining The Goal
The Integral Upbringing: Virtual Or Physical?

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

Question: How do we show the world that a transition to an integral society is not a utopia, but a real project?

Answer: An integral society cannot be a utopia for two reasons.

First of all, the worldwide crisis is directing us toward it, and there is nowhere we can hide from it. It will continue to pressure us. Millions will be left without work. See what is happening in southern Europe: Spain, Italy, Greece, and is already approaching Germany and France.

And what will happen to the people? How will they react to everything? We are looking at civil wars and revolutions; without integral upbringing, anything could happen! Horrible nationalistic problems will arise. We see fascists coming to power in Greece. This is protectionism, which will manifest in a horrible way if integral upbringing is not introduced in time.

For this reason, a multifaceted horrible crisis will continue to push us from every angle.

How can the population be calmed down? Who will feed the unemployed? No one will! No social work will be able to keep them from explosions of protests and mass disturbances. When people are hungry, death does not scare them, they can climb barricades, nothing matters to them.

And those on top do not know what to do; they are lost. The only thing they can do is escape to an island in the Pacific until they are found there.

In other words, anarchy, terrible absurdity, and chaos are coming over us. This is on one hand.

On the other hand, we face nature, which is showing us the negative side of our inaction and lack of understanding.

For this reason, it is necessary to introduce integral upbringing at least as an experiment in a single region. Let us try! What do we have to lose? Everything is dying anyway.

Two months ago in Italy, I spoke with a representative of the European Community about education. He sat in front of me like a student sits in front of a teacher, writing down every word, he literally had pages and pages of notes. And this is a serious official, who spent the last eighteen years working for the governing body of the European Community in Brussels. He said: “It is a perfect system, but I have no one to tell about it to because we have twenty-seven countries and each wants things done their own way, nobody will want to listen to anyone else.”

He reached out: “Who can I turn to, what can I do?” In his opinion, for this experiment we need a small town with a dying economy from the closing of a huge enterprise that was responsible for the economy of the entire town.

But huge cities will soon be in this same situation. These are not small towns where people can still feed themselves by growing their own food on the land. Countries are in debt, and tomorrow they will not be able to feed their population. What is next? We are facing a huge mess.

The only thing that can save the world from civil wars and fascist regimes is integral upbringing. If we continue following the egoistic path contrary to the integral, “round” development of the world, then the next stage of egoistic development will be Nazism, fascism, and protectionism when countries realize that they are not able to do anything with the common market and they will close their borders and eventually come to the state of war.

Even if they do not want it, they still must break the economic, financial, and other connections they have created between them that are suffocating them. This is what is leading them towards a world war.

Global dependence is natural; there is nowhere to hide from it. This is why if things continue this way, we might even have to go through two wars. According to Kabbalah, there is a possibility of a third and even a fourth nuclear war. And after that, whatever is left of mankind still will be implementing integral upbringing and the integral lifestyle according to nature.

That is the harsh way of realizing the need for integration instead of doing it the reasonable way.
[99484]
From KabTV’s “Integral World” 11/28/12

Related Material:
The Unpredictable World
Economics Of The Future Society
The End Of The Development Of Egoism

Filed under: Crisis, Education, Integral Upbringing, Politics, Q&A, Suffering, Unity - No Comments →

Question: How is it possible to integrate nullification of yourself towards the group and the desire to understand the meaning of the text being studied?

Answer: One feeling does not cancel the other. I have to yearn together with everyone to connect in one common point. In this point of connection where we are together, we feel some phenomenon that is called Malchut.

First of all, everyone’s yearning to integrate together with everyone else is required. For this, the following components are needed: self-nullification, greatness of the goal, and importance of the friends and of the group. I have to focus all of this together and yearn for that point of general connection.

Other people participate together with me in this yearning. We act together, each one nullifies what he has. We leave this whole world at the bottom and all of us strive forward. Through our connection, we want to form the vessel of bestowal from which our relation to the Creator, the desire to bestow, will be born.

Then, in this yearning to bestow to the Creator, we will begin to feel Him, the upper Light that lands on us and fills us. The more this yearning is clarified, growing according to the thickness of the desire: 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4, the more developed it will become. And to the same extent, the force of bestowal, adhesion with the Creator will be revealed in us. This is in fact all of our work.

The question is: How can this yearning to self-annulment and understanding the material be combined? To understand means to know, meaning to reveal or connect. The Sefira Daat (Knowledge) symbolizes connection, as it is said, “And Adam knew Hava (Eve), his wife”.

When I nullify myself at the bottom, I help myself prepare for connection. Without this, I won’t be able to connect with others. In order to rise to the point of connection, I must nullify myself.
[99385]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Conditions For Receiving The Upper Knowledge
From Egoism To Love Is One Stop Upward
In One Circle Around The Pillar Of Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Question: The exercises and games that we use in the course of integral education, in general, are nothing new. Many training companies use games in similar combinations, organize roundtables, and do so in a much more sophisticated way.

Answer: We do not need to learn from others. This can only confuse us because we are not interested in the level where the other companies are.

That is why it is desirable, as in everything else, to use only our own Kabbalistic sources, to follow only them. And then, as they say, we will see.

When you follow the primary sources, you develop naturally, and based on what is revealed to you on the spiritual path, you transfer this to the students. I never take anything from the external sources: philosophy, psychology, new age, etc. I always felt some rejection towards them and think that we do not have anything to learn from that.
[99588]
From a Talk on Integral Education 1/20/13

Related Material:
In What Way Is The Ego Good?
The Relationship Between The Language Of Kabbalah And The Language Of Integral Education
Everyone Has Their Own Predisposition

Filed under: Books, Integral Upbringing, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: We only need to reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. So why do we need all the books and all the talk about self-annulment and about unity? We must simply demand the equivalence of form and that’s it.

Answer: Go ahead, demand it. But how? Kabbalists wrote books only so that we can advance. On the whole we study two types of books:

– There are books that bring us the Light that Reforms—which are mainly the writings of Baal HaSulam.

– The other books, the books of Rabash, teach us how to approach the writings of Baal HaSulam: in unity, with the group, with the right intention.

Without this guidance you would not attain anything. You need someone to guide you.

Question: Still, why didn’t Baal HaSulam write a book about how to reach equivalence of form with the Creator?

Answer: It is forbidden. I have to look for equivalence of form by myself; I have to feel my way around and find it. Then I will understand what it is and that it’s exactly what I need and exactly what I aspire to.

And I would also understand how to ask for the power to do it. The desires can’t come from the outside; I have to arrange them internally. In our world everything is the opposite: I open a physics, mathematics, or mechanics textbook and study it. I have the necessary basis for that. In the spiritual preparation there is no such basis, no such tools or desires. Even if Kabbalists wrote a book like that, I wouldn’t understand what they want from me. What does it mean to raise the NHY to HGT?

This means that first I need to extract new levels of perception from the books, new powers, and new inner responses, to develop my mind, and to expand my feelings. First I have to develop internally, and in order to do that, the book has to perform certain actions on me, to “sculpt” something of me, to knead my matter and to stretch it by direct and by opposite bestowal. It’s only then that I acquire enough gentleness and sensitivity so that in a second reading I will already understand what it’s about.

After several years a person doesn’t read “Shamati“ as he did in the beginning. But how can this be explained to a beginner? This means that it’s impossible to manage without guidance and training…
[99511]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

Related Material:
Books With A Spiritual Subtext
A Journey To The Foundations Of Creation
The Most Important “Toy” In Life

Filed under: Books, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Kabbalah Study, Q&A - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“:If one’s intention in the Torah and Mitzvot is not to benefit the Creator but oneself, not only will the nature of the will to receive in him not be inverted, but rather, the will to receive in him will be much more than what he was given by the nature of his creation.

Question: Is Baal HaSulam speaking about us here?

Answer: Yes and no. First the desire to receive must be revealed to its fullest. This is because a person can only correct the flaws that are in him. But until one acquires a Masach (screen), the desire grows in different manners: either by pleasure or by pain. In the second case, it grows wanting to avoid pain, and this pressure directs its growth in a certain direction, in the direction that is “anti-sufferings.” As for the pleasure, it grows by “swallowing” them and always remains in a double deficiency.

Then, during the time of preparation, when we yearn for connection and love, the desire grows in an opposite direction in order to constantly supply material for correction. On the whole, the growing of the desire doesn’t stop or retreat, it always moves forward.

Question: What is the difference between desire that grows opposite to the goal and desire that grows in a goal oriented manner?

Answer: Suppose that there is a nice place where everyone is given presents. There is a railroad that reaches this place and I can get there by train.

I may be moving backward while I believe that it is good (!) until I hit something and discover that I have chosen the wrong way. By discovering a minus (-), I am left with a question (?): So what should I do now? Then I gradually begin to move forward. This is the long path of suffering. After all, I make a detour before discovering that I have been going in the wrong direction. Yet in the process, my desire to receive grows.

I may be drawn forward meter by meter through the 125 degrees; again my desire to receive grows making the road increasingly harder. Let’s say that it isn’t a flat rail track anymore but an ascent up a mountain that becomes increasingly steeper. There, at the top of the mountain, is the King’s palace, and the road to it may be difficult, but it moves straight to it without any detours.

Question: So with what parameters do I check myself? How do I know that I am heading up the mountain and not in the opposite direction?

Answer: The parameters are the group, and, within it, self-annulment and connection. Practically speaking, there are no other means by which you can surely check and measure your steps.
[99504]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

Related Material:
Pangs Of Love And Pangs Of Hate
The Last Disappointment Before A Joyous Encounter
A Yearning For Love Instead Of Suffering And Hatred

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

Question: Baal HaSulam says in the article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” that the soul is dressed in the body in this world. What does that mean?

Answer: A “body in this world” means the desire to receive for one’s self. It fills all the space here (see drawing), and there is also a point in the heart (•), the posterior of Nefesh of Kedusha. It is shattered, which means that it also wants to receive for itself, but it can be turned into the opposite state.

Question: Where is the desire with the point in the heart?

Answer: First you feel that the desire exists and begin to notice the fact that the desire has no corporeal place. This desire is the essence of the spiritual creation.

Today you see before you the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as people. All this is the imaginary world. Don’t look at it, put it aside, it isn’t the main thing.

Besides that, there is a desire to receive in which there is a spark. We have to take care of these sparks. Give the imaginary world the basic necessities and you are not obligated to do anything more than that since it’s all an illusion. You should provide everything for your main part.

This means that you have to isolate the point in the heart from everything that is in the desire to receive. We should differentiate it from within the desire and bring it out as much as we can, separate it from the desire to receive, and develop it. The desire itself should be restricted and annulled. Then there will be a connection that will help it and then several other steps…

[99500]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

Related Material:
Avoiding Sophistry
Living For The Body Or For The Soul?
Where Is The Microchip Of The Soul Within Me?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work, Perception, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: How many classes will it take to shape the integral vision within a person?

Answer: I am sure that a sensation of the new attitude toward the world is formed within a person during the very first class. It can be a one and a half or two hour training directed towards connection and interaction with others.

Usually during the first class a person begins to feel that he already looks differently at people, at the world, and at himself. Suddenly he senses that there is not only “I individually,” but there is something else besides that. He becomes very attracted by this “besides me individually.” Suddenly he senses warmth. Through his interaction with others he feels confidence and relaxation as if he is in his mother’s womb.

Comment: But there is a lot of this type of training…

Answer: This is not psychology. It is impossible to confuse it with anything else because here a person obtains a totally different means of connection—outside oneself. He begins to feel the world outside himself, beyond his properties. It doesn’t matter what properties I was born with and what upbringing I received. Now I begin to rise above my original properties and above the properties I have acquired to date, and I begin to sense others, what they really are.

The integral environment inevitably gives a person additional senses. He begins to sense the world in a much broader way.
[98910]
From KabTV’s “Integral World,” 11/27/12

Related Material:
Integral Upbringing Can’t Be Confused With Anything Else
Walking Along With Nature
A New Person For The New Epoch

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