Rabash, Shlavei Sulam (The Rungs of the Ladder), (1984/85), Article 13: “Mighty Rock Of My Salvation”: …Wherever he walks, he is eagerly searching for a place where perhaps someone will be able to give him the power to bestow.

Question: How do I find this power?

Answer: Seek the means that will help you to come to bestowal.

When a person begins his work, discerning the Creator’s action over him, he continuously remains in the state of search and helplessness: “How do I find the Creator? How do I draw Him close to me? How do I move and excite my affection, how do I use my mind to comprehend Him? Where do I reveal His action? What veil conceals it? How do I ‘turn’ myself in order to highlight His connection—even if it is negative, only to manifest it?”

A person starts changing his facets and properties desiring to unveil the Creator thereby. Such is the nature of our work. It isn’t simple; it requires enormous energy; it burns tons of “calories” and demands great effort in a tireless “chase after the Shechina.” Gradually, a person gains experience on this path and learns to overrule himself. This is the key.

And the Creator, based on one’s previous years and one’s life in the group, prepares all sorts of surprises for him. One’s personal errors start surfacing, or somebody makes him angry, or he feels insulted and feels the urge to put the offenders in their place in the heat of the moment, but suddenly stops and thinks: “Aren’t I supposed to work on myself by the principle ‘There is none else besides Him’?” But how? I am on the warpath now, and I am expected to remember Him?

Question: Rabash says that one has to find a group where everyone “craves the power of bestowal.” What does it mean?

Answer: In the group, we don’t receive normal incentives: money or respect. After all, the friends are getting pushed by the upper force, and gradually they assume a spiritual path. Then this force starts receding so that they can draw energy from spirituality on their own, without blows from behind.

Question: How do I draw strength from the spiritual so I advance not for the sake of honor and other egoistic rewards?

Answer: You can draw strength only from unity; otherwise, it won’t be spiritual growth. I strive to link in, to sink into the group, so I can be impressed by the friends. I don’t collect their strength for myself, but I do get impressed and respond to their giving, their love, and their spirit. Seeing them for the first time, I feel sorry I looked; after all, now I will suffer because I don’t participate in what they do. I wish they wouldn’t awaken brotherly love—I would be more at ease, would feel better, be more content. But then I tell myself: “Wait a minute, but this is exactly where you can gain strength, impressions; it can shake you up and ignite! So instead, let them be exalted in my eyes and inspire me to follow them.”

In the end, the group, the teacher, the Creator, and the Kabbalists’ books—these are the only positive factors I have to advance. And all the friends must link together as one; none of them is supposed to be lesser than the others. Only as equals can we move toward the goal.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: After the congress in Novosibirsk, we feel a very strong responsibility. It is as if a new system of relations between us was born, when our whole life should be in mutual care for each other. How do we start our work anew, with a clean slate; how do we take the first step onto this new platform?

Answer: Indeed, a new sensation was born. But the connection itself is not new; it already exists and only becomes revealed to us more and more. I see that you feel the new stage and discovered a new experience. And respectively, your mind that works in sync with the feelings was renewed. Now the question is how will we accept this as a fact that binds us to connect even more—all of us together, and me with you as well. This was the qualitative change—I am much more engaged in the group since you have come to a more advanced state. And our further advancement is in that each of us now should maintain the unity we achieved.

We should at least try to maintain the same feeling that arose during our uniting at the congress. This is despite the fact that totally opposite states will be coming: totally opposite feelings and calculations will wash over. And they will not even contradict the former unity, but will just distract and sway you off to the side, forcing you to strive for the philistine values that you used to have in the past. And this is where you should try to view your condition with the Creator’s eyes. This means to look at it not only from “below upward” but also from “above downward”. In other words, you should see yourself as a child who is imagining being a grownup.

He doesn’t just look upward at adults from his place, but he imagines being big and what he would do then, how he would arrange his life, himself. That is, we should visualize how we would apply an “adult” spiritual state to our life if we were already in it.

To be an adult means to be like the Creator. And I need to envision I am next to the Creator and my spiritual vessel creates a complete connection of all desires, thanks to our self-annulment and the mutual inclusion of everyone into everyone infinitely, so that each of us feels all the common desire and the Creator being revealed in it. This cannot be described with words because all our words derive from the broken world and not from oneness.

With these eyes we should look upon life, the friends, the teacher, and on your entire work, and regard them accordingly. In normal life, “outside the temple walls,” we act as all others, not separating from them. But inside your group, you should see the corrected state. Everyone should view the group and his or her life this way. Then, a person can fit into this corrected picture. Likewise, as during studying, so with the teacher and the group, one can act in sync with the upper state being envisioned. After all, who is the Creator? It is the upper state. And this is all we need.

Most importantly, stay in “There is none else besides Him, the good who does good” every moment. I envision the Creator, who resides within me, as such, and what He demands of me in this case. What would be required of me if I were in such a state? How would I see everything if I were exactly the one, besides whom there is nobody else, someone good who does good?

I need to see that all my actions come from the Creator, and my attitude to the friends, and to the world—and all of it is good and only for their benefit. Everyone will eventually feel this way, and gradually, we are beginning to feel it. This is described as “penny by penny builds to a large sum.” We exerted efforts that accumulate and ultimately result in a leap: one passes level 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and finally makes a leap. And then again stages 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and a new leap. That is how we finally reach our first spiritual state.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12, “Questions and Answers Regarding Novosibirsk Convention”

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Question: When we participate in the morning lessons and workshops should we appeal to the Creator through the group?

Answer: Only through the group! There cannot be any personal appeal to the Creator. All the Shamati articles were written for a person who is engaged in the spiritual work within a group. By the way, there is nothing mentioned in these articles that one has to direct oneself to the Creator through the group because it is a natural and obvious thing.

If I say that I look at the Creator, it means that there is a group in front of me. Otherwise, I do not see Him.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Question: Let’s say, someone has wronged me. I turn to the Creator, ask for love, and through the prism of love, I try to look at the offender: He is great and this is the manifestation of my uncorrected properties. Should I talk about this with the offender?

Answer: The offender has nothing to do with it. Here is the Creator who manifested Himself in this way. But this is not about forgiveness.

If you decided to respond to this action of the Creator, based on the fact that you desire to unite with Him, you can protect yourself and strike back at your attacker. But first of all, try to see contact with the Creator, to see a manifestation of the Creator in the offender and any other object or situation. However, this does not mean that you have to forgive him. No! In the end, you have to build the same relationship with him as he is with you against your egoism and against him.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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The Writings of Rabash, “Maoz Tzur Yeshuati (The Rock of My Salvation),” Article 13: … but what can a person do when he wants to praise (the Creator) and his heart is sealed, and he feels that he is full of deficiencies, and that he cannot open his mouth and say a song of praise. The advice is to work above reason, and to say that everything is “concealed Hassadim,” which means that he should say that everything is Hesed, but that it is concealed from him, because he isn’t qualified to see the good and the delight that the Creator has prepared for His created beings.

Question: How can one reach the state of praising the Creator?

Answer: Suppose you feel bad, problems follow you, you have unpleasant thoughts, unfulfilled desires are torturing you, and you are upset and mad at everyone around you. Now you have to rise to the level of there is none else besides Him and that the Creator is good and benevolent. You do that by building the corresponding calculation, you make many efforts, search incessantly, and gradually you rise above reason.

At the same time, it’s important to clarify why you are doing that: Is it because you are confused? Or is it because you have an unpleasant feeling? Could it be that it’s because of the fear of punishment? Or is it because you want to bring the Creator contentment?

Eventually you see that everything stems from Him, that He is good and benevolent as He raises you from the previous level to a higher level.

This is how you advance: You thank the Creator for what He has done, and of course, you immediately receive new problems and descents. Time after time you rise and descend, increasingly faster than you can calculate and arrange, in order to stabilize your attitude to what is going on.

Still this process continues. First you operate out of fear, since you are afraid of different troubles and don’t want to feel unpleasantness. But gradually you balance yourself with the Creator and begin to think about bestowal a little. Then He immediately throws you off track and now you try to work together with Him. Next time you already want Him to feel good, and the time after that you really operate for the Creator, by wanting to justify Him, not because you want to save yourself or others from suffering.

Thus you advance, by clinging more tightly to the intention of in order to bestow each time. You constantly understand and assess the situation, but the assessment is always according to one criterion: “To what extent do I think of the Creator?”
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What should a person do if he is in a state of joy too much?

Answer: There cannot be “too much” since we have to be in Ein Sof (Infinity) in this state. It cannot be a question of time since everything disappears, both time and distance.

Question: What can we do to not simply remain in this state, but to make the best use of it? I understand that I have to turn to the Creator, but it takes so long to receive an answer.

Answer: The fact is that many have similar complaints: “There is no answer!”

The spiritual world is, on one hand, integral, analog, and, on the other hand, it is impulse. This means that there is a kind of dualism. Is an electron a particle or a wave? Is the Light a particle or a wave or both? We don’t understand that at the moment. Physicists say this, but they don’t feel it; this just comes from experimental studies.

On the one hand, our senses are seemingly constant, flowing in a current, and not in pulses. On the other hand, they pulse, that is, in ten Sefirot or five phases. If you come one millimeter before the first phase, you feel as if you haven’t even started the work and still have no contact with it.

If there has to be a thousand volts, then there has to be a thousand volts. Suppose you have a thousand rubles. You pay, and you cross the border, like when boarding a plane. However, if there is one penny missing, no matter what you say, you will not be allowed to pass.

These are the attributes of the upper world. You must have a certain potential of desire in your question so that you will be rewarded with an answer. However, in the meantime, you don’t reveal it. You are in a sea of Light, but, if your vessel cannot contain the Light (which means that you don’t reach it by your sufferings, both in quality and in quantity, according to the intensity of the question until you reach a certain volume), then you will not feel the answer. It is because your question isn’t ripe yet, and you see it from your unripe state.

You are saying, “I am already somewhere in this Light, so what’s next?” If you arrived in the last full feeling of your current state, then, after that, you would feel the next level in the form of a new desire. So, go on feeling, but try to understand more for what and how. The clarification of this state is lacking.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Question: The article, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” speaks about the need for making our own efforts in the spiritual work, but all the states come from the Creator. When can we become independent?

Answer: Our independence is expressed in becoming similar to the Creator from within our egoism, thus including in us two opposing forces. If you take away the force of the ego, there will be nothing left of you. You will exist in Him like the starting point that He created as something from nothing, and will have no personal feeling of anything.

Initially, the Creator’s question was how to create an independent created being that is similar and equal to Him. This is what He does in all of creation.

We are committed to constantly try to attain a state of full adhesion with Him with the feelings and the mind that He summons in us.

Adhesion with Him means that both my feelings and my mind come from Him so that, through them, I will ascend above my ego and begin to actually feel His bestowal in me.

It is hard to express. There are no such words in our language.

On the whole, we have to yearn for connection with this only root, with this source—every moment, in every parameter, in every section, in the heart and the mind, in our desires and our thoughts.

Then, a new heart and mind will be created in us that work in order to bestow in a different coordinate system, in another dimension.

Only then will we begin to understand from what space this force operates. We will already enter this space, but only through systematic work on ourselves that brings about the recognition that everything in me and around me, everything, comes from Him at any second, at every moment.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Question: Recently, I watched a movie in which a group of boys came across a cave with a spaceship in it. After they looked at the spaceship, they suddenly began to fly. Can those who participate in group integral education start flying?

Answer: What imagination!

This world is based on very rigid physical laws. There is nothing else here! The upper world partakes in this realm through numerous physical laws.

Talk with physicists; they will tell you that all there is behind this material plane are waves. They will prove to you that there is no such thing as matter and that it blurs, meaning that when we penetrate deeper into its tiny particles, they simply disappear and turn into waves and energy; nothing more than that.

All that we observe is the interaction of energies in space. What lies beyond the observable world? Who knows? Energy, space, everything fully disappears when we get beyond these boundaries. There is no time, no motion, no distance whatsoever.

Interaction between things is independent of the distance between them. We have already seen this on the border of physics.

Comment: This picture seems pretty empty for an egoist.

Answer: Why? There is a huge egoistic field that we can work in. We don’t see our bodies, nor do we need them. Our bodies dissolve and disappear from our sensations.

We see ourselves as being stretched all over infinity and eternity; we sense infinity, we control it and fulfill ourselves with it. In return, we fill it with ourselves. This is the way we exist. Each of us regards this dimension from his or her personal viewpoint. These states are quantifiable by regular physical devices. Kabbalah provides actual tools for that to us.

Comment: In other words, there is a flow of energy, bliss, and love.

Answer: Energy is the joy that flows through our desire with enormous strength.

Actually, there are two kinds of desires: to please and to be pleased. They are constantly changing, shifting, and flowing; this complementary interaction is life.

Everything else is outside of this life.

Comment: Our people who like to fantasize will be upset.

Answer: I think that people are approaching truth at a pretty fast pace. Our egoism grows and fairy tales won’t satisfy us any longer.

Interest in yoga, new age theories, etc. is almost over. This period was required solely to “decorate” our existence, to add a pinch of spice to our life to make it a little juicier. That’s why all sorts of salespeople are travelling all over the world selling red strings, holy water, and promoting a variety of training, but all of this is meant for the public; of course, it isn’t worth anything.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Dr. Laitman,” 11/4/12

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Question: How do I check the efforts in the group, and whether they should be checked at all? It turns out that my own sensations deceive me, don’t they?

Answer: It does not matter. We still have to take these feelings, take our minds, and work with them, and again in duality! This is our problem.

On the one hand, friends appear in my eyes so that I would have each of them altered or replaced, myself too.

And, on the other hand, everything comes from the Creator; He deliberately gives us the state from which we would come to the conclusion that this is perfect because it stems from Him. And from the state of duality, confusion, not understanding, and conflict, we suddenly begin to identify Him.

We get a substrate, the basis on which we can feel it. The foundation should be different, strewn with all sorts of thorns. It is then, when we have plenty of feelings, properties, various opposite definitions. And then He is felt. Otherwise, we cannot feel the Light.

Despite the fact that we are in it, we still have no contrast between the “I” and He. That is what we are building, a new sense organ.

Question: That is, I check everything both individually and from the state of the group?

Answer: Yes. We must constantly be in two states and analyze what is happening from two points of the observer.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Question: If relative to the Creator, we are already in the third, corrected state, then what does it mean that we have to give pleasure to the Creator?

Answer: We have never gone out of the third and the first states; relative to the Creator, there are no changes. Everything that was created by Him was created at once and instantly, and there is not even question of time. We will begin to feel this soon.

Ari wrote in his poem: Behold, that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures created, the upper simple light had filled the whole existence. What do it was before and then mean? Baal HaSulam explains this in his writings.

The state of time is a causal relationship. But we do not understand that either. Cause and effect are always related to time for us.

The picture that we attain in spirituality is beyond our limitations of time, space, and motion. We feel them only at our lowest earthly level. Once we start to feel the upper world, we will see that there is no time, no death, no birth—nothing! There is only a constant ascent in the property of bestowal.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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