Question: What percentage of a city’s population needs to be involved in the integral process in order to tip the situation? After all, there should be some critical mass? It is impossible to include 100% of the population, isn’t it?

Answer: It is not necessary to include 100% of a city’s population in the integral process. It is sufficient for about 40% of the society to embrace this idea in order for it to become prevalent in the general mass.

Since the integral method is favorable, it will start penetrating the masses through all the other layers of society like kids or senior citizens. Besides, there will be serious supporting public structures. I hope that even the first few weeks of building a healthier society will show its effect on all municipal and other services that support the city: Life itself will be promoting this.
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From KabTV’s “Experimental City: Upbringing” 3/3/12

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Question: How should the situation change, qualitatively and quantitatively after the introduction of integral education and upbringing?

Answer: For example, we can compare the statistics of a city where an integral experiment is being conducted, a city like Detroit, where violence, murder, and suicide are prevalent and the most active part of population is leaving the city. If things are left to take a natural course of development, like in Detroit, the city will become a ghost town.

But a town with integral learning is beginning to prosper, because residents together build parks and attractions, and find ways to attract tourists, etc. All of this is possible.

If we were to compare the data from the two cities, it is like heaven and earth. If once Detroit was a prospering city, now it is impossible to step outside. The homes, that once cost a million dollars to build, now go for no more than five to ten thousand dollars! But no one wants to buy them; it is impossible to live in these houses because you do not feel safe at home. No one goes there. It is impossible to convey what a city turns into in a case like this.

But a city where an integral process is taking place will attract everyone, since its population is becoming richer by creating a completely new atmosphere. For this reason, apartments in a city, a place where this is happening, will rise in value.
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From KabTV’s “Experimental City: Upbringing” 3/3/12

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Question: What does it mean to “talk from the center of the group”? What is it?

Answer: When I stop feeling the “I” and begin to feel only “we.”

This feeling should be manifested in us during the discussion, as if we are inseparably tied in a single whole, in one body. I should leave the workshop with this feeling.

Question: Is this the “height of unity”?

Answer: Yes, already I cannot look at things differently. That’s how I see the world, myself, and everything around me.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: How can the desire to receive bestow?

Answer: A person has a chance to work with his desire to receive in order to bestow for the good of others. In our world, there are situations in which I feel that I depend on someone, and then I try to make him happy either for my own benefit or to avoid troubles.

I also may perceive the other as part of myself if it is my child or a beloved person. Then, by making him happy, it is as if I make myself happy and even more.

This is one of the forms of the influence of the upper Light, which brings us the right feeling. On the other hand, if the Light disappears, a person sinks to the bottom of his existence, losing all contact, and any sense of belonging even to people who are closest to him.

When the feeling of closeness is taken from us, we are left with the desire to receive by itself without any sentiments. Then, I don’t take anything into account except for any possible damage that I may cause myself. At the same time, the upper Light can influence me in such a way that I suddenly will feel a quantum leap and will want the other to feel good, not because I will benefit from it, not egoistically, but I simply want him to feel good.

How can that be? We don’t know, but Kabbalists tell us about this. They also say that we all should reach this feeling: “You have no other choice, and, if you don’t listen to us, you will experience great suffering, so you will want it one way or the other.”

Only the upper Light can provide me with a new, altruistic attitude toward others. I can never acquire it by myself.

– “So let the Light influence me!” I am told.

– “No, it will influence only if you want it to.”

– “But how can I want it if I am an egoist?”

This is why you were given a “point in the heart” in addition to your desire to receive, a grain of understanding. I admit that bestowal is special, and this candle, which you didn’t light by yourself, burns within you and evokes you.

Besides that, the upper Light flows upon this point or this candle, bringing you to the group, to the study, and placing you in such an environment that enables you to resemble the actions of bestowal, the forms of bestowal. Like a small child who imitates the grown ups, you were given a bit of a desire, so use it.

By that, you will summon the Light that will influence you more strongly, and you will suddenly acquire new attributes. Then, the other, which is the friends, humanity, nature, and the Creator, will become more important that your own self.

The Light does all that if we raise a request for correction and do “good deeds,” which means that we play together in bestowal as if we want it and, by that, reach a prayer, a demand: “We have done so much, and where is the result?” Then, we begin to pray, understanding that only the Light can give us the form of bestowal, and so we advance.

Today, you have no connection to bestowal except for this game. In order to bestow upon the Light, we must resemble it, which is possible only by connection and unity in the group. This is the only form of bestowal that you can express and exhibit in our world in order to resemble the Light and to summon its influence upon you.

– “Okay, we are holding hands. We really want to unite. What’s next?”

This isn’t enough. You don’t connect like a football team; you want to feel the need for bestowal. You lower your heads before one another and unite. What is this for? It is in order to reach the One who bestows.

In order to do that, you should know that you must have the right attitude toward Him. So, please, take a book and read about how to do that. If you want to be big, read what the big ones have written, what they do, and how they prepare their actions of bestowal upon the Creator.

If you really want that, play at it like a child who wishes to resemble a grown-up. Unite with the friends equally by wanting to reach mutual guarantee and as an expression of mutual bestowal. Yearn upward for bestowal upon the Creator, use the sources, and advance together toward the goal.

Then, you will be influenced by the Reforming Light and will reach your goal. Without the Light, nothing will happen. You only evoke a desire that is as correct, as efficient, and as intensive as possible, to the fullest.

You will reach the desirable measure of exertion so that the Light will turn from the Surrounding Light into the Inner Light. In other words, it will bring the attribute of bestowal into your desire, and you will perceive this feeling as the Light itself, as life and vitality.

If you were given the feeling of bestowal now, it would seem to you as hell. The only difference is that, by correcting yourself, you will be prepared for bestowal and be happy with it, whereas now it only will cause you pain and make the darkness seem like death since the Light of Hochma that isn’t dressed in the Light of Hassadim will be like a knife that cuts your whole life.

A small portion of this Light brings about our descents by evoking us to look for the way to rise to Hassadim. You are drawn upward, asking the friends and the Light for a bit of the attribute of bestowal that will pull you out of the descent. By that, you are begging for Hesed (mercy), for the dressing of the Light of Hassadim. When it comes, you receive a little vitality and come out of the abyss.

So, the Reforming Light is different from the Light that does not reform by giving you a Masach (screen), which means the readiness to stand bestowal and even to accept it as the real life.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Question: Conventions where we actively were using the workshops as a way to unite produced the astonishing results.

Some friends, who in the past couldn’t find the common language, suddenly, by rising above personality differences, were able to unite. However, at the same time there were people who could not enter this process, they could not force themselves to sit in the circle.

Answer: The reaction of rejection is taking place. These people have a good and healthy egoism. They will too go forward, but we have to be patient for a little while and not push them! Gradually it will happen in them as a result of the influence of the common field. I know these problems many of which I experienced myself in different ways. Generally this is all legitimate.

In any condition, in any combination, in any possible form these friends should participate in common events; they can do it purely in the mechanical way, they can help do some work, sit at the computers, help with the general connection between the groups during that time. It doesn’t matter what they do. Gradually it will come.

There are such types of egoism, which have a very hard time establishing a contact. Even sitting together in a circle and talking about something only in the mechanical way is not so easy. In this regard we have to always raise another person and try to justify him.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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Question: How is it possible to hold on to the same feeling of unity that was born among us during the workshop?

Answer: We should always look for what the term “center of the group” means, whether it is a kind of feeling, an understanding, a vessel, or the revelation of the Creator. This question shouldn’t wane; it is as if this tempting and attractive point is playing with us, hiding and then revealing itself to us. In response to this courting, you are constantly burning with desire and chasing this point, like a person in love.

We should constantly clarify the feeling of unity that was born by penetrating into it deeper and deeper, investing into more mind and feeling, the forces of connection, and revealing different details. The connection that we attain is varied and includes many particularities, elements, and parameters. Therefore, it constantly disappears and reveals itself.

The type of exertion the friends invest in this is crucial, no matter if they succeed or not. Thus we influence one another, and this is all our work.

But it isn’t just an aimless search in total darkness. We have to clarify in advance what we are looking for. If we cannot imagine what the center of the group is, it means that for the time being “Israel, the Creator, and the Torah” are not perceived as one point by us. This indicates that we don’t understand what the goal, the connection, and the mutual guarantee are—it is still impossible to perceive this on the part of the Light and on the part of the vessel. All these discernments do not intersect at one point for us yet. But that’s fine since we’ve nevertheless started the real work.

If the feeling of unity is attained, we should try not to lose it after the workshop is over. If everyone constantly thinks about it, no one will lose this feeling. Everyone will be under the influence of the general field that we have created, and they will not be able to free themselves of this thought even if they want to. Even if the external conditions around a person pull him aside, it won’t happen.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/2012, Talk about the Seminar

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Question: You are saying that the center of the group is Malchut of the world of Atzilut. Does it exist now, when we only study these things theoretically?

Answer: These things exist only when you attain them. Up until then, they stay in potential.

For example, you have a newborn son, and the potential for all the following generations that will come from him exists within him. They don’t exist yet, even in the drop of his semen, but they still are provided for by the program of a higher order. That is the “potential existence”: There is a program above us, a cause and effect order, and we can change nothing in it. Gradually, this potential is being realized.

Everything that happened with everyone up until now was transformed from potential into reality. Thus, good and evil are similarly conditioned by the upper program; it couldn’t be any other way. With regard to the past, we are all fatalists.

When it comes to the future, we can change it. We should not have faith in fate here. It is true that Reshimot (the informational genes) will certainly realize, and the Lights will certainly be opposite them, but I define their relationship through my efforts. If my desires are equivalent to the Lights, to that extent I change my sensation on this path, up to the opposite one, and then I move forward comfortably at a good rate. This is what is meant by “changing fate.”

Everything is determined by the rate of advancement. If you slow down the realization of the Reshimot, they cause very unpleasant sensations in you, as compared to the accelerated option. Even the most joyful tune sung slowly sounds like a mourning march and vice versa. By accelerating time, it is as if you convert your sensations from negative to positive.

The world today is going through the crisis for the same reason. It is as if people are shocked by what is happening and unable to make the necessary decisions. This is because the rate of development suddenly increased, but man has not adjusted yet.

I am not “round,” not integral. I cannot take into account numerous parameters simultaneously. Everywhere, something is happening, everything is interconnected, but I am still trying to go along the line laid out by my egoism. We cannot get along with the modern world because our rhythms do not coincide with each other.

Thus, the end of correction is predetermined; however, how I realize my development depends on me: whether it is through the path of suffering or the path of sensible, conscious advancement. The rate determines everything.

That is why it is said that Israel accelerates time. Realization of the same Reshimot could be accompanied by positive sensations or fatalities, wars, epidemics, and other misfortunes that will force us toward the next step. Everything depends on preparation, for lessons as well as for life.

As it is written, “I awaken the dawn, and the dawn does not awaken me.” We must desire the realization of new Reshimot since each of them is an opportunity to rise toward greater bestowal.
[78500]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/2012, “Introduction to TES“

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Question: Is there a difference between making a covenant with the Creator and with a friend?

Answer: There is no difference, but with the Creator this is possible only on the condition that the covenant is authentic and eternal. However, with a friend this might just be a game for now. This is the entire difficulty, that in spirituality only a perfect desire is accepted, meaning one that is absolute and eternal and that you definitely won’t go back on.

If a person ascends to the next degree, this means that his demand or request for it was accepted as perfect, meaning that he really wants this.

We continually renew our covenant, as if making it anew. But if a person rises to a certain degree of the covenant, then he cannot fall from it anymore. When it seems to me that I fall, this means that I am receiving more difficult conditions to preserve the covenant, like a renewed contract. And I am a loss as to where to get the forces to continue that contract.

The Creator constantly makes the conditions harsher, while we have to adapt to this renewed contract on new conditions. However, if a person uses the group, the studies, and dissemination correctly, then he also finds additional desires and forces, he values the new state as a higher one, and therefore overcomes the difficulties.

We have to view everything happening in life from this point of view. All of the worst and stupidest situations come to us for one purpose: to teach us something and move us forward.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How should one use the workshop in order to see the world through the prism of the group?

Answer: It will happen when you create a point of connection. This means that the force that is created between us will reach such an intensity that it will not let us disconnect from it. I will constantly want to be within it. I will understand that only from there can I judge everything within the light of truth and not be mistaken.

Only what I see through the shared focus of the group, the central point of the circle, constitutes the real world. In this way, I can judge and never be incorrect in my judgment.

All of this will be revealed to a person. Thus, he will not want to leave this connection, but will constantly aspire only to strengthen this same point of our unity. In this way, we begin to ascend the levels.

To the extent that we join together and intensify our connection, both quantitatively and qualitatively, we rise higher and higher on the spiritual ladder until we discover the Creator and the connection between us in the form of Partzufim and Sefirot. Then, we begin to see how everything that is described in the sources takes place between us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions” 

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Question: During the workshop should we stress the point that we want to achieve in the beginning and the conclusion we have reached in the end?

Answer: In general, we should always draw a conclusion. The fact is that we don’t have enough time to ask everyone what conclusion he has come to and to give him an opportunity to share his impressions and what he has accomplished. But in any case, everyone should be making a conclusion.

It would be good if everybody would write about their impressions and wishes and would send them to our general email address. It doesn’t matter if you don’t receive a response. The fact that you are writing to our single general email address and are trying to add it to our common bank, and you reacted to this somehow this will receive a reaction.

At the end of the workshop it is desirable to hear impressions from each group, but if many groups participate in a workshop we at least need to hear impressions from a few of them.

The workshop ends with a common song, a melody. Those who have an opportunity can signify the end of the workshop with a small festive meal.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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