Question: Can one person acquire an anti-egoistic screen if it can only be acquired through the group? Or is the Creator the only one who can give us a screen?

Answer: The Light comes through the group in response to my request and builds a screen within me, which helps me rise above my ego and connect to the group. A screen is a connecting link between myself and the group, or between myself and the Creator, which is the same thing. It helps me rise above egoism and, once I rise above myself, to connect with the Light, with the Creator, with the essence of the group that is revealed at the group’s center.

We don’t need anything other than the screen. There is my desire and there is the group within which the Light and the Creator are found, and the screen helps me connect with them. That is how I enter the spiritual world: at the center of the group.
[77696]
From the 4th seminar at the New Jersey Convention, 5/13/12

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Question: Suppose a teacher falls into his “blind spot” and does not notice that he revels in his power over people and begins to abuse it. In this case, should we patiently wait for these states to pass or should we still limit him?

Answer: When this happens in a regular psychological group, we shouldn’t restrain him; instead, we must work with him as with any other person. But if we are in an advanced group, which is already beyond simple egoistic relationships and attitudes, then we must understand that the teacher can appear as an egoist, a very strange person, moody, and dictatorial. He can appear this way to students because he really is on a high level, and this is why he behaves this way. It is written: “Do not judge your friend before you reach his level.”

This is why we must always understand that when it comes to friends, it’s easy to respond since we can more or less understand their states. But when it comes to the teacher, we might not understand his states; they might appear egoistic, dictatorial, moody, and willful. It’s possible that his states only appear this way to us because his level is higher than ours, and we don’t adequately perceive every consequent state.
[77348]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 2/27/12 

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Question: Can a physical desire, for example, sexual desire stand in my way on the spiritual path?

Answer: Physical desires for food, sex, family, money, honor, power, and knowledge cannot stand in a person’s spiritual advancement. We shouldn’t deal with what belongs to the body separately.

We should only be worried about the hatred we feel towards the friends and then toward the whole world.

If you want to eat five servings instead of one, it is harmful for the body, but it doesn’t interfere with the spiritual path. The same goes for sex.

So think only about the connection with the Creator through the friends, and you can stop worrying about all the rest.
[77366]
From the Brazil Convention 5/06/12, Lesson 5

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Question: I have three kids, so I was very worried when you said that our generation is depleting all the natural resources, not leaving anything for our children to live on. How can we correct this situation?

Answer: Our general family includes seven billion people and we have to think about everyone by worrying about what we will leave for the next generation and not only for your three kids or our grandchildren. But in the meantime, I see that we are enjoying life, consuming the vital resources without giving it any thought or feeling, not worrying about those who will come after us. This is just an example of how blind our ego is, and that it doesn’t understand what it is doing.

If we look at the behavior of all the countries and all the governments, we can see that no one is thinking about the future. Our only desire is to pump more resources from the earth, produce more goods, and throw them away. The fact that at the same time we are polluting the air and the water doesn’t stop us. I have traveled around the world a lot and I see that even in countries that are not industrial, the environment is still terribly polluted. There are hardly any places that are still natural and clean, everything is poisoned.

This is a natural process as long as only the force of the ego manages us. If there is no other force to counter the ego, the force of bestowal that can balance it, it will kill us. We will not be able to stop it. Only a moment before the end, having no choice, we will cry, “Help!” and then we will be saved. But it is better not to reach this state; it is better to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah as widely as possible before reaching this state.

We should understand that if we only fight the external pollution of nature as a society for the protection of nature, it won’t help. We are given all the ecological problems in order to push us in the direction of the correction of the soul. If we only deal with improving the environment, we won’t correct anything by so doing.

Now scientists are also beginning to see this, saying that if we begin to use alternative energy sources to preserve the environment, it will only lead to other unexpected outcomes. For example, the generators that operate on wind energy that are considered to be very ecology friendly, actually have a strong impact on global warming that it doesn’t justify the energy they produce. After all, they push the air to the ground with great force, thus causing greater harm than benefit.

There is the law of conservation of energy. We can’t produce energy from nothing. Even if we use solar energy, it has a tremendous negative impact on the earth. So we can’t cover the whole planet with solar panels, it won’t help us improve the environment, but actually causes harm.

In nature everything is arranged so that only by advancing towards the goal of creation do we achieve balance with nature. Everything else that we do, no matter how good it may seem, only causes harm. No matter how hard we try to protect nature, nothing will help.

It’s to such an extent that we can stop thinking about saving the Earth’s environment and natural resources, the debris that contaminates it, the plastic that fills the seas and oceans, but rather, we should deal only with our internal correction. Then everything will immediately work out because the higher level corrects all the levels that are below it.

In The Book of Zohar and in the article “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” by Baal HaSulam, it says that everything depends upon the correction of man, whereas the natural levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate rise and descend with him, without any account of their own. So the protection of ecology will not help us. Instead, the main thing is to care about our soul.
[77374]
From the New Jersey Convention 5/09/12, Shamati #25

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Question: During seminars in the group, some people talk more and some less, some are more expressive and others less. What is the right way to relate to this?

Answer: When I sit in a circle together with other people, I must see every one of them as a puppet through which the Creator speaks. This is not a person, but the way in which the Creator presents Himself to me in various forms. No matter how silly the things they say are, that doesn’t matter to me; I bow down before them. No matter how unpleasant they may suddenly seem to me, how repulsive and unattractive, I must counterbalance this by understanding that He is awakening this outlook, this antipathy in me. And this is the place of work.

It is written about the great sage Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma that he had a group of students who were total beginners, stupid and with no merits, but he placed himself even lower in relation to them, and then they suddenly became great in his eyes and he was able to receive all attainment through them from the Creator.

No one is higher or lower; all of that exists according to our evaluation. Therefore, I can sit with a group that came “from the street” – that doesn’t matter. Everything depends on how I position myself in relation to them.
[77448]
From the lesson in America on 5/10/12, Shamati

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Question: Is there a difference between watching the convention at home, on the computer monitor, or coming there in person? Does a person get anything additional by being there in person?

Answer: You probably know that in the 18th century it was popular among the wealthy class to buy their own seat or box in the opera or theater. If a person wanted to hear his favorite aria in an opera, he could come for just those 15 minutes, enjoy it, and then go back home. Back then there were no tape recorders or recordings so people had to come there in person to hear a symphony or opera.

Later tape recorders and televisions were invented, so why haven’t theaters closed down to this day? For example, a ticket to an Italian opera performed by a famous singer costs a lot of money. I once went to an opera in London and the cheapest seat at the top of the gallery cost 40 pounds. But people still go there because it is impossible to transfer an impression through the screen.

To get a full impression, you have to be at that place in person. “A place” is a spiritual notion, which also exists in our world.

And this is even truer for a Kabbalistic convention because we get together to unite! And for that it is not enough to see it on the screen or hear it through the microphone. If even a recorded opera does not give you the same impression as a live performance, then it is even more so with the feeling of unity.

The entire purpose of the convention is unity. All the events, seminars and discussions are devoted to this. This is one, single, living process, which cannot be conveyed in any form. For this I am willing to travel to any group, to any point in the world, even though this is quite burdensome for me. But there is no choice; I cannot carry out my mission in any other form and you cannot attain the goal in any other way.

Only if someone lives in a very remote location and has no opportunity to attend, and really cannot (and he will have to prove that to the Creator, not to us), then apparently there is a personal, special calculation with him. But I would not let the opportunity to take part in a convention pass me by for anything.

There is a famous example of a person who lived thousands of years ago in the Negev desert and worked in agriculture, and once a year he travelled by foot to study in Jerusalem. He was only able to stay and study there for one day because the road there was so long that he had to immediately set out to go back so he could return in time to start working in the field. But to this day there is still a special day during the year that was named in his honor (“a student for one day”) when everyone sit and study.

It is impossible to pass energy from one person to another without personal, physical contact, when we are all together. That is why we exist in this world! This world is special because we are all egoists and are therefore able to begin our connection only in this way.

After all, we are not connected with a spiritual connection yet. And therefore, another, lower level has been given to us, called “this world” – an imaginary reality in which our connection is born. And after that it already begins to grow in spirituality.

It is like a flower that does not grow until the grain rots in the earth and a sprout grows out of it, which then grows to become a flower. That is how we must plant the beginning of our connection. And even though we are in the egoistic world, our grain must rot in this egoistic soil and a new sprout will shoot out of it.

However, this preliminary phase, this physical connection between us is necessary, and that is why this entire world exists.

I think that after these words, an explosion should occur and everyone who hasn’t registered yet will rush to register to the convention. If I was a person living in America, I would not stay home.

You can place a television with the biggest screen in front of you, and set up the ideal, most comfortable conditions, take a vacation from work so no one will bother you from watching, but this still won’t give you real contact. You will miss out on the most important thing: the inner sensation, and will see just the external picture.
[77416]
From the lesson on 5/9/12 in America, Shamati

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Question: What do you mean by the notion of “love”?

Answer: I mean that every one of us constantly lives others’ concerns.

It works the same way in the group, where we begin to work in practice mode so each of us wishes to create the most comfortable state for others. That is, I have to understand and feel others. I must continually send them the corresponding signals – verbal, physical, thoughts, and etc.

I must exist in mutual guarantee with them, where every one of us provides all the others with such an attitude or sensation among us that I am sure that by influencing them, I receive the same influence from them upon myself. Therefore, we constantly ascend together above our egoism into qualities opposite to it. This kind of mutual work is the most important work in the group.

After adopting this method, we will constantly feel repeated descents into egoism, “gravity,” and the emergence of various obstacles. This will continue until the full correction, until our full ascent above egoism.

However, in any state within the group and even outside – at home, and with others, I will immediately focus on the same idea, the same practice. And as a result, I will be able to interact with the whole world correctly.
[77260]
From the talk about integral upbringing on 2/27/12

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Question: It isn’t clear how a modern person who doesn’t want to have children will suddenly have this desire.

Answer: It is thanks to the fact that we begin to connect mutually all over the world. By forming connections based on love above the repulsion and the unpleasantness, we begin to understand the internal power that is concealed in these relations. We will see to what extent bestowal upon others fills us.

Then a woman would want to be in such a relationship with her husband, with a certain husband and not some random partner, as we see these days. Then they will be able to establish a mutual relationship and to build a family, not on the biological, sexual level, but on the level of the spiritual connection. In such a family they will feel that it is possible to expand the relationship, fulfilling it through children. This is all the result of a person’s learning to connect with the world.

We’ve always lived egoistically. We gave and received egoistically, but now the whole world will reach an altruistic connection. First it is in the form of to bestowing in order to bestow, and then it is in the form of to receiving in order to bestow. We will understand that it is worthwhile to reach such a form of receiving in order to increase our bestowal.

It may seem like lofty language, but according to the pace of our development this future is very near. Of course, it is very hard to understand this, as long as a person doesn’t change. But by changing gradually, we begin to understand the level we are on and a bit above it.

I think that the more a person corrects himself, by becoming more integral and connected to others, by treating others with love, bestowal, concern, mutual understanding, and mutual guarantee, his attitude towards the other sex, towards his or her partner, will also change and so will the attitude to family ties and to children.

After all, we’ve never felt what love is. We acted according to our natural instincts and accordingly we chose the right spouse. But now our close relationships will be based on an internal feeling after we’ve learned to live above our ego.

Nature obliges us to establish such global relationships around the world. Then we will not look at the other sex on the beastly, physical level where the family has already collapsed. We will create a family alliance on a higher spiritual level, and will establish connections of mutual bestowal.

By this mutual bestowal I will begin to feel differently about my spouse and he or she will feel the same way about me, so there will be a new connection between us, as it says: “a man and a woman, if they were granted, Divinity is between them,” which means a special connection. Thanks to this connection, we will begin to think about children. This will be a totally different family, we are not going back to what was in the past, but rather will raise our connection from the corporeal, physical level to the level of the souls, to the spiritual level.

The family will have the same form: a man, a woman, children, but the meaning and the goal will be totally different.

[77087]
From a “Talk About a New Life” #19, 2/02/12

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Question: Let us say that there are dozens of integral learning groups in a certain neighborhood. How can they later merge into a single whole?

Answer: Today, having such a powerful mass media and ways for people to connect, we simply need to invent plenty of games, ways for people to be included mutually, like TV shows or fun attractions like panel games, when different groups meet and interact with each other. They begin to show us ways to change one another, how a person positions himself to affect others in a specific way.

Later, groups generally become diffused. They do not stay forever static like some frozen organization, community, city, dwelling, or middle-aged union. They do not. In the end, this will be a society where many people, or even everyone (I am referring to the future), will understand how they can make every situation work for them and be for the sake of others at the same time.

Once they understand this, they will see clearly how to interact and communicate with each other. In other words, any time they interact will be to help themselves and others have the best integral interconnection. They will work on being integrated with others every single moment, and thus will always feel a certain unity, which they already will feel and perceive as their and the world’s completely different state.

They will feel above our world in this unity, as if they were floating in a completely different human concentrate where different laws of behavior exist, the so-called “laws of commutation,” laws of unity and integration. By supporting each other in this and constantly being above our egoism, they begin to perceive a different kind of reality.

When a person is surrounded constantly by people who agree to play this kind of game, then this game gradually turns into a completely new kind of communication, and then the perception of a different space where, instead of receiving from others, we give to others. We work in a direction that is opposite to our current direction.

This new direction allows us to become free of our limitations. Instead of viewing every state as a state that obligates me and offers me the opportunity to take from the outside, on the contrary, I regard them as states that offer me the opportunity to come out of myself, become freer, and stop being limited and confined to myself.

Moreover, everyone else supports me in this. In the end, I will reach a comfortable, unrestricted state. It does not obligate me toward anything. On the contrary, it gives me an opportunity to feel free.

I am referring to relationships between people that we yet do not see anywhere today, but if we teach people these kinds of relationships, then in the end, they will aspire to this state. Once there are many people like this, they will overcome their egoistic resistance and communicate with each other above their egoism in a new mode. They will perceive a higher reality in it. We need to bring them to this.
[77101]
From “A Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/27/12

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Question: Suppose we have an integral study group, which needs some guidance, to be told what it will deal with, what process it will go through. What should we start with?

Answer: For the new members there should be talks about the world, about the new trend, about evolution based on the ego, etc. First we have to prepare a serious theoretical basis of the practical perspective of human history, of society, and of ourselves. A person is gradually brought to the question of “what’s next?” Suppose we have explored the modern world, our development, the development of man and all of nature, and where it’s leading us. We don’t even see the lack of free choice, the dynamics of our development, and the collapse of the ego as the engine, as the source of our life and of our advancement. We reach a crisis, what’s next?

Next, of course, there are different goals in nature. We are now at such an intersection in which we have to totally change our attitude towards the world because the ego with which we grew before has suddenly stopped working.

So where is it leading us? It’s leading us to its negation. We see that in all the problems, in depression, drugs, terrorism, and even the crisis in the family and society. The main thing that hurts us most of all is the economic crisis because we, as beasts, need to eat and to supply our basic needs. Here we find ourselves in a state where we will not be able to supply the basic needs, especially in the world that we have created around us, a world that is a huge urban jungle, in which we all have to do something in order to get what we need.

It’s very easy to destroy such a world. It’s so sensitive to the slightest inability to adapt that millions of people can find themselves cut off from food, water, and the supply of energy and other resources. We cannot even imagine how delicate and fragile the world we’ve created is, and if something goes wrong, just a little, it will collapse like a house of cards. All this will collapse and what about us?

As a result of our development, we have brought ourselves to this very unstable state. You can imagine cities around the world with a population of 20 million people, but even in cities with a population of 2 million people, what will happen when these people are cut off from food, electricity, water, or a sewage system?! This is the end!

There is a need for mutual cooperation among countries, without which we cannot manage. No country can provide its own needs by itself any more. So we can see that the world is really very fragile and unsafe. We are showing people all this, explaining the general trend and why nature and the ego have brought us to this point so that we will rise above the ego, because in the present state we are unable to adapt to the global integral nature. How can we be mutually connected to it, meaning being included in its integrality, in its sphere, in harmony, with our ego?

This is why we need guidance by which we can show people that there is another way to develop. When we psychologically change ourselves and people, we will see the world not from an egoistic perspective, but from an integral altruistic perspective. We’ll be able to form a totally different society that will be in harmony with all the natural laws. And then having no choice, a person, the family, the society, the state, civilization, and all of humanity will reach such harmony with nature that we’ll recover all the fragile balance on earth, internally and externally, with the rest of nature. This is possible only if a person changes from an individualist into a person of the universe. This is what we have to bring to people.

Now let’s see how this can be done: Can we leave the individualistic, egoistic perspective of the world? Can we change the egoistic glasses and see everything through integral lenses? What will I gain from that? In other words, I have to take care of everyone. Is it possible? I shouldn’t take myself into account, is that possible? Do I have to totally “leave” myself? What about me and my family, and my relatives? How can we aim at mutual cooperation with others so that we can form a unified society?

What does unified mean? It is when each of us doesn’t feel himself, but only the society, like ants, who only understand their cooperation. None of them has a separate role, a separate goal, size or priority, but all are operated by a collective mind, a program, and meticulously carry out all the orders of the program. Is this possible? This is where nature is leading us. On such a level we will reach total harmony with it.

What do we gain from that? Although it sounds a bit like a fantasy, we are gaining the feeling of eternity, the feeling of infinity, because all our feelings today are within the limited ego, while here we move on to a different feeling, outside ourselves. Then a person doesn’t feel his own beastly body anymore, by rising to the next level, to the next dimension called “human,” which we didn’t feel before. He isn’t in his “animal” anymore, but rises to an upper level. Until today we were actually more developed animals.
[76929]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #17, 02/28/12

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