Question: Most people don’t understand how they can go from the state they’re in right now to a perfect integral picture. Can we discuss this and bring up a few examples?

Answer: We can discuss it. Moreover, we must develop a plan of transition, a program, a movement, toward the global government that would consist of people with an understanding of the problems we’re facing and that would be spiritually elevated above other people.

These would be progressive and developed people, not today’s egoists that are only developed in their narrow knowledge of a particular field, but people that are developed in their integral understanding of nature and society. They must lead this entire movement.

There are people that possess good organizational skills naturally: the same government officials, the wealthy, and the merchants. They just need to be given a different direction, and their organizational skills can be implemented.

Question: What about their greed?

Answer: Let them remain greedy. All they need is to redirect it and ensure that all of humanity learns a sensible way of consumption in the shortest amount of time so that everyone would have everything. Let them provide this, and, in return, we will give them our full gratitude and love. Do you think this won’t fulfill people?
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/29/12

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Question: Kabbalists say that, as it is written, “Since the world is judged by its majority, and the individual is judged by the majority, if he performs one Mitzva, happy is he, for he has sentenced himself and the whole world to a scale of merit.” How is that possible?

Answer: In a whole system, the individual and the general are equal. We don’t understand that because we always are operated by quantitative data, but in the whole analog integral system, however, even the smallest part is crucial.

If it breaks down, the whole system breaks down. It cannot operate on half its power or on 99% of it. As long as there is even one defect, the whole system is disabled.

These are the laws of the mutual connection among the souls, which together make one desire. The condition for the connection stems from this: “As one man in one heart” when everyone transcends above the ego, “above reason.”

Of course, we advance toward this gradually by going through 125 levels on the way to full connection, but, even in the process, the principle of equality of the individual and the general affects things so that when one gram of me is added to the circular general system, it enables it to rise to the right level. We must use this principle, which means to see even the smallest action performed by each individual as important.

Question: Does that mean that my corruptions also are transferred to the system?

Answer: Yes, and Baal HaSulam writes about that, but the point is that our system is already almost totally corrupt. We begin the ascent from the bottom, from the worst state, and first correct the purest, lightest vessels, desires.

Question: Does this integral law operate on everyone or only on those who are aware of it?

Answer: First, as the group is revealed, a person enters this system and participates in its work. Besides, on the outside, there is the system of all of Israel and then of the all of the nations of the world. Each part belongs to the system according to its weight.

The unity itself is concealed, and what is revealed to us at the moment is only its crust, which is the easiest part to correct. It is here that the mechanism that enables each of us to judge the world to a scale of merit operates.

This is because, for the time being, this is our world, the part that is revealed today and is given to us so that we can work in it. We have not entered Malchut of Ein Sof in its full intensity yet. We discover a thin layer of it each time so that we can work with it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: What does it mean to talk to the Creator through the group?
Answer: It is like you’re talking to yourself and making clarifications. However, it can’t simply be an inner dialog with yourself. It has to be a dialog with the Creator. This can happen on condition that you conduct this dialog through the general vessel, Shechina, where the Creator dwells.

For example, if you wanted to speak with an important person, you would have to pass a letter through his secretary and follow certain requirements. You have to do the same with the Creator and conduct your dialog with Him through the group, that is, through your attitude toward the fellow friends, through bestowal, to the extent that you can imagine it.

Otherwise, this appeal will not be directed toward the Creator. The group and the entire reality is a place where the Creator dwells. If you can connect to his reception room, then you can connect with Him. He gradually will reveal Himself to the extent of your readiness to connect properly to this place where you and He are supposed to meet. This place is like His chamber.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/12, Shamati #35

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Question: Is it possible to designate one of the workshops at the convention to discuss the obstacles that prevent us from uniting? On one hand, it is an obstacle, but on the other hand, we need it since we have to be glad that we are opening the walls between us.

Answer: In no way should we talk about obstacles as preventing us from uniting. We call them obstacles because they seem to be such in our egoism. However, in reality, we accept them as a necessary condition for the ascent. It is impossible to rise without them.

We must accept them naturally, with happiness, since this is the only purpose for their existence. If a person is included in our upbringing and education, then, regardless of what obstacles he faces, he has a correct reaction to them, and he certainly is rising with their help. This is very important because the technique of the rise above the obstacles is the most useful one. There is no other way here in order to rise.
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From the Virtual Lesson 8/12/12

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Question: Should a person share their feelings regarding family life with their spouse?

Answer: Yes, there must be no inner divide between a husband and a wife. At times, we feel embarrassed, and sometimes we do not even want to admit something to ourselves. However, we must speak with one another like psychologists. We bare ourselves completely and face one another the way nature made us.

Everyone must regard himself and his partner from the side. Like at a lab bench, we reveal our inner world and discuss everything to the end without any shame, without thinking about the past or the future.

After all, we wish to turn everything into unity. So, let us put all the problems out on the table:

• What is bad about us? Which qualities do we not want to use in their current form? We make a mutual critical analysis.
• What is good about us? What do we want to share with one another? What do we want to develop?

Together, we figure out what is wrong with our ugly nature, and, simultaneously, we show that we are prepared to rise above it, and unite once and for all. We hate one another when it comes to mutual criticism, and we barely manage to live with one another out of hopelessness. We are held by children, debt, and responsibilities, and we tolerate family life. However, at the same time, we look for a way to improve it.

When we talk, we must understand human nature, desires for food, sex and family, as well as money, respect, power, and knowledge. We must understand that everyone has envy and lust, and ambition and love for power burning within them.

We discuss each other’s inner world and then our mutual, shared world that we must build between us. At first, we speak about human nature as a whole in a psychological manner. Then, we examine which of these common things are inherent in each one of us.

We talk about our qualities, suspicions, impulses, passions, habits, and other things, without shame or fear. I do not even realize that I have some of these qualities, but I must know about them. At least, I must know how they appear in the eyes of my life partner.

So, I say everything out loud: how I disagree with the things that exist inside me, what are the things that I lack, and what I would like to conceal instead of displaying. It is as if I were on a lab bench when talking about myself, and together with my partner, we examine my qualities, and then we discuss my partner in the exact same way.

This allows us to open ourselves without remaining confined to our boundaries. We neither praise nor blame. We state facts objectively the way a doctor does, not performing esthetic evaluations during an examination. He defines a problem and solves it. Roughly speaking, he regards me as a “piece of flesh” that needs to be corrected, and we also impartially note good and bad qualities in one another without getting personal.

For example, my wife tells me, “You are so cheap. I did not know I was marrying such a tightwad. This really bothers me. You ordered one salad for both of us when celebrating my birthday at the restaurant. It has been ten years since then, and you have not once taken me out to a restaurant. You wake me every time you get out of bed at night even though you could be more careful. In the morning, you get up five minutes before you need to leave the house, and I must get all your things together in five minutes.”

We discuss problems. My wife helps me realize the things that are bad in me, and this is a great thing. However, this conversation is not in the form of a squabble or hurtful demands. It is objective. It is done with love or, at least, from the point of view of a doctor examining a patient.

For example, a psychologist listens to you while having a cup of coffee with a pastry, and then, in a similar manner, he explains to you the things that are bad in you. You leave him with a broken heart while he makes final comments in a notebook and pours another cup of coffee for himself. This is objectivity. I rise above personal interest and simply tell my partner what I see in him.

I will make the following example to better understand this approach. I am starting a new position where I have a one-week probation. I am very worried about this testing period because whether I will get the job depends on it, and now my wife who knows me inside out tells me about all my faults that I must watch out for at work with love and no personal offense.

Even though I do not like hearing about it or seeing her while she is listing facts, I rise above my ego and accept her words very seriously. I do not disregard them. I am grateful to my wife for this preparation as I comprehend my faults.

My wife tells me, “Do not forget to throw away the empty bag when you make yourself coffee. Do not blow your nose loudly. Do not ask for clarification…” All the points of her “diagnosis” benefit me. She is more than a doctor; she participates in my problems with love and care.

In the end, we both want to achieve unity, and this is why we make an evening of diagnosing. For example, when I get back home from work, we open a bottle of wine and put some toast and my favorite Greek salad with feta on the table. We even light a candle for atmosphere and have a peaceful discussion
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From a “Talk about New Life” 7/12/12

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Question: The first lesson of the Kharkov Convention is called “Unity Within the One,” that is, a lesson about the happiness of unity, about the group that is united by one goal to become similar to the Creator, about how we can feel this now and be confident that we will succeed.

Answer: The problem is that we start to feel all of us, existing together in one single external sphere of nature. This sphere is called the Creator, or Nature. It envelops us all, and we are under its laws.

Therefore, in the end, if we come to similarity with this sphere through our properties, then we will reveal our unity, oneness. Then, it will be unity within the One.
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From a Virtual Lesson 8/12/12

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Question: The subject of one of the lessons of the convention is “The Prayer of the Many.” This lesson is about how one comes to the prayer not for oneself, but for society.

Answer: The Prayer of the Many is a request to correct the broken vessel, the shattered common soul. If we form this request correctly, we definitely get a response because the request that passes through the common vessel acquires the properties, the format, that is perceived by the Light. Thus, we must learn how to connect with each other in such a way that, through this template, through the group, everyone’s request reaches the Creator correctly.
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From a Virtual Lesson 8/12/12

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Question: What characterizes patience, which is necessary in our work?

Answer: To show patience means to stubbornly go towards the goal. As it is said: “Do anything, but just don’t leave!”

It is told about how Rabbi Akiva was the only one to survive a sunken ship and did not drown in the turbulent sea. He grabbed onto a wooden plank and lowered his head before each oncoming wave, and in this way he reached land.

We need to do the same thing. Whatever happens, I continue my path. I may be suffering and worrying, possibly, I am not even able to do anything, but I continue to go to the lessons, to listen, and to participate in the work. I may not be burning and inspired now since times can be different, but I am doing everything that I am capable of. Most important is to be yearning forward. That is a very important quality.
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Question: The point of the convention is born in the first moment of the convention. But I know for myself that it is not always possible to immediately enter into it; one should definitely go through some intermediate states. How can we shorten this way to grasp this point to become a true source of importance for the friends?

Answer: I think it should already appear during the preparation for the first talk, but not when people sit and listen to my lecture. They must be included into each other before that.

If you are going to be included in the convention after half a day or a day, it doesn’t work. We must make every effort to prepare, so that when you arrive there, you are so to speak “hot,” and immediately join in the general flow, the general excitement; otherwise, we will lose time.

Don’t talk yourself into that, say, coming and getting in the mood in the evening, or maybe tomorrow. You will have no time to recover, and then it’s over. On the contrary, it is necessary to connect at once and stay at a pace that you are always experiencing more and more states.

So, I beg you, do not waste your time.

For what are we doing all this today? Just for you to be more and better prepared, to come to the convention and not to think: “I will tune in later, when I gradually learn everything.” We have no time for this! You have to arrive there fully prepared and become included immediately. I beg you.

The same goes for all of our friends who are connected with us virtually: don’t relax! If you sit in front of the screen, try to “enter” in it with your soul and don’t be distracted no matter what. You have to control yourself twice because there may be no one else next to you: You are alone.

So, prepare in advance everything you need: to drink, eat, and do not disconnect from the lectures and workshops, which are two and a half hours. Do not turn off! Just sit there and that’s all, as if you were sitting in the center of our lecture hall. I hope for your seriousness in understanding the state the world is in, all of us.

This is a very important event not only for us but for the whole world because it depends on how much we go the right way: by accelerating the process and easing it, or the slow and harsh way. Everything now depends on this turning point. This convention, I would say, is something historic.
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From a Virtual Lesson 8/12/12

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Question: What do you consider to be the most important thing? What is your last address to everyone on the eve of the convention?

Answer: I beg you, from this point forward, no matter what you do on the eve of the congress, all the time think that you are doing all of this for the sake of people around the world coming together physically and virtually and reaching unity, equal to the first degree of the upper Light.

It will be much easier after that. This is similar to how a child is born, as birth is the most dangerous, most difficult, most complicated process. And to this day, when a woman gives birth, we do not know what will happen and how. There is something unpredictable in the birth of a person.

It is easier afterward. A child is born, and you start to work with him: to feed, swaddle, take care of him, giving him everything he needs, etc. The most important thing is over.

The same happens here. We have to go through childbirth, and then everything else will go more easily. It is much easier! It is much simpler! It is much clearer! We will have to be both in this world and in the spiritual one—in the world of bestowal in addition to the world of reception. It will be clearer to us what Kabbalists write about. We will start to adapt to what will be in our feelings.

Therefore, let us make every effort to be born in the upper world. And then move on together.
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From a Virtual Lesson 8/12/12

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