Question: Yesterday we finished re-watching all seven lessons from the convention in the Arava desert. Could you please sum up our state and assess the stage we’re entering?

Answer: For our next stage, starting next week we’ll be working on articles about the group by Baal HaSulam and Rabash, adapted to the modern reader. I hope that this will allow us to better feel and implement them, as well as to clarify the most suitable form to express them.

After all, it’s possible to make tons of mistakes here, which is exactly what people have done with the wisdom of Kabbalah over the centuries. It is the oldest science; indeed, there were no sciences in the world before Kabbalah. And it is precisely its breaking, meaning its incorrect interpretation, which has led to all that we see today in humanity. These consequences are manifested in absolutely everything: education, culture, family, economy, and political structure, in the entire world.

Kabbalah speaks of natural phenomena, the Creator’s actions, and our lack of understanding thereof results in our erroneous, egoistic development. Let’s hope that we will succeed at clarifying all these matters in depth, which will help us move forward. And then we’ll be able to develop the point to which we were able to ascend at the convention.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2012, TES

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Question: What is balance between the force of receiving and the force of bestowal?

Answer: We see this balance within our body and in different systems that exist in nature. It determines our health, the balance of climatic conditions, and social and economic systems.

Balance means health. However, it is possible on all levels: On the inanimate level, it provides us with calmness; on the vegetative and the animate levels, it provides us with health. Balance is always dynamic, from small to large. It is necessary to always see the levels.

For example, in the development of an apple, it goes from a small balance to ever-greater balance, until it ripens completely. However, on all of the previous levels, the apple was in some kind of partial balance. When the deficiency relative to the next state was revealed, it developed more and more. This is how the process of development works.

Therefore, we need to see what we can do now in order to bring ourselves into balance if today the current state of humanity is like spoiled fruit.

What force are we missing for balance? We see that it is necessary to add the force of bestowal to the force of our egoism. If we balance these two forces, we will live in peace, in good health, in a harmonious family, and in a good world. This is the only thing that we are missing.

It is only possible to arrive at the force of bestowal through a correct environment that teaches everyone how to reach it. It will help him personally in his private life, as well as in the society, and then all of humanity and our entire civilization.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 12, 1/10/12

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Question: Development takes us from the world of consumption to the world of bestowal. Thousands of generations have lived in a world driven by the power of egoism. If the next step of humanity must bring it to the world of bestowal, then what is this world?

Answer: It is only called the world of bestowal, but both forces exist in it. The force of bestowal exists in the world of consumption, but it is only used for reception. The world cannot exist with only one force in it: There must always be two forces.

The main question is which one is the determining force: Who is in charge? If the force of reception decides everything, then the force of bestowal serves it.

I am willing to give a little to receive more. I am willing to invest in a business to earn more. I develop everything only for more profit and benefit.

The entire still, vegetative, and animate world, and man as part of the animate nature, developed through the dominance of the force to receive over the force to bestow. This is obvious when it comes to man who, as a big egoist, uses this force in a way that hurts his neighbor. In man, the dominance of the force of reception over the force of bestowal is clear, but this dominance is more primitive in the entire still, vegetative, and animate levels.

When we look at man, we simply are able to see more clearly that everything we do is intended for personal pleasure, for benefit. I cannot do anything when I do not see a way to benefit. Nature has made me so that I have no chance to make a single move if I don’t get pleasure from it, a benefit: The fulfillment must be greater than my investment. My investment is bestowal, and reception must be greater than bestowal. This means that the power of reception rules over the power of bestowal.

In the end, we completely blow out of proportion the way we use the force of reception that rules over the force of bestowal; we want to make a profit on everyone without feeling any shame. A person is ready to kill, sell, and destroy everyone only to receive one gram of fulfillment and pleasure; at the same time, he does not take anyone into consideration in any way.

This is how much the force of receiving has grown in relation to the force of bestowal. The difference between them has simply become enormous. When we suddenly come to these enormous disproportions between the force of bestowal and the force of receiving and the connection between them has become completely disrupted, then we experience a crisis and the inability to continue to exist.

This is because the force of bestowal no longer comes near the force to receive and does not help it continue to evolve. Egoism has grown so much that it does not allow me to give even a little to others in order to benefit. I want to receive everything for myself.

Egoism no longer allows me to even tolerate another person near me so that I could make a family. It does not allow me to have children because of the price I would have to pay for it: to yield, consider others, and help one another. I am not ready for this. This is how much the power of reception has outweighed the power of bestowal!

We see this in the world today, in any place and on all levels of a person’s life. I always think about ways to gain the most to the point of not even paying at all. It is better to steal.

This is why we create different systems that legally allow us to steal. We distort laws, form corrupt relationships in the government and society, and do all this just to receive as much as possible. In the end, we come to a state where a person is not able to take anyone into consideration, whether it is his family, society, the government, children, or all of humanity.

This is why the common crisis is appearing in education and culture. We have stopped taking nature into consideration completely and we are prepared to do anything we wish with it, discarding poisonous gas and waste into the oceans and contaminating everyone and everything. Nothing concerns me outside of my four walls. The ozone layer is not my business; let others worry about it.

My ego does not allow me to make calculations even one day ahead because it always checks on what I have in my hands right now. If I fail to see an immediate benefit, I don’t care what happens later. Don’t tell me about the future. I do not see or hear anything.

Some 50 years ago, economists and bankers prepared programs for the development of the government for 5, 10, 20, or even 25 or 50 years ahead of time. There is nothing like it today. No one even knows what will happen tomorrow.

The lack of desire to consider one another leads us to the loss of a point of reference. This destroys all the systems that now exist. It destroys the very last remaining minimal balance between the force to receive and the force to bestow, not just balance but also any kind of connection, and even this is lost.

This is why we do not know how to continue living. The solution is to create a system within our community that will help push us and teach us to increase the force of bestowal without which life cannot exist.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 12, 1/10/12

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Question: Where is the group in the events of Purim, in the story of Haman and Amalek?

Answer: You find your Mordechai, your Haman, and everyone who prevents you from connecting to the group and through it pleasing the Creator—in the group.

First of all, it is necessary to find the direction to the North, to find out, do you have this very internal attitude with which you strive to please the Creator? Did you discover this point in you, the weakest and very delicate inner desire? Do you have it?

But if you do not have it, it is not terrible, it will still come; it will be revealed through the Reforming Light, and eventually you will begin to feel like you somehow pertain to the Creator. And above all we need to find this aspiration in us that determines the main direction, and this can only be done with the help of the group.

For this reason, everything we do in the group, with our friends, all our gatherings, everything must be done with the purpose to at least come closer to pleasing the Creator. And when we do not act with this purpose, we will be nothing but “a gathering of fools.”

This is because the fact of unity in a group does not yet mean anything. It is a fact that when different groups like the army or a football team are being trained, they go through special psychological training which prepare a person to give his life for his group. He begins to feel that the group is above him. And then he operates through a simple calculation, he compares himself to the group and sees that it has a greater value, and thus he is willing to kill himself.

This is false altruism, which allows a person to sacrifice himself simply because he has developed a new scale of priorities, which determines what he deems to be more or less important. But this has nothing to do with bestowal; it is just a result of a psychological manipulation.

And this is a dangerous trap because many believe that they are on the path of bestowal when in reality they are participating in a gathering of dissemblers—a group, which instills the value of bestowal to the group. Essentially, this is even greater egoism because it is a common group ego, which pulls you forward. It is above a person but does not lead in the direction of the Creator. And this is a mistake many people make. All religions have developed as a result of this kind of mistake made sometimes in the very beginning.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You constantly speak about integral education. But not everyone will spend all their time on spiritual work because people have other corporeal desires: dancing, music, creative work, etc.

Answer: I don’t think that people will have many different secondary desires. The development of the integral community will be so wholesome that it will consume all the other habits, interests, hobbies, and people will find everything that can possibly fulfill them, including new culture, music, and literature, everything, in their integral connection, activities, and communication.

The fulfillment a person will receive through integral connection with others is the highest fulfillment, the fulfillment of Light. He or she will have no other demands. Of course this will include music, literature, and art, but they will be completely different. They will reflect the person’s new world, new vision, and new movements.

Comment: People object to the prediction of the disappearance of contemporary cultural values: music, art….

Answer: I don’t neglect cultural values, diminish their value, or encourage their destruction! Music, literature and art all are very important in my view and perception of the world; they are a source of positive emotions for me. But the thing is that as we advance, the culture, built on the egoistic perception of the world, will gradually disappear. The meaning, feelings, fulfillment, qualities, and values instilled in our current works of art will gradually be lost. They will have no meaning for us.

In other words, I will view the greatest music, the greatest literature, and the most beautiful works of art as something very small which doesn’t correspond to my new demands because they are created by a small person who only has the skill to draw pretty images, use words nicely, or express emotions through music. But all of this is on such a small egoistic level that only fulfills my small physiological soul so that when I develop new instruments of reception and attainment, I simply stop feeling any greatness in this.

I say things as they are: I have been to the Louvre, I looked at the paintings, and I was not able to “find myself” in it. But some time ago, they delighted me so much that I wanted to keep returning to these halls. You gradually begin to feel that all these things are on a level which absolutely does not fulfill you, does not delight you, and you see no value in them.

A person begins to demand a greater, higher fulfillment. And this perspective exists and will definitely happen. Basically, this is a vector of growth.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

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Question: What is the importance of a person’s appearance in an integral world? Should a person look good?

Answer: Of course: “A person needs to be beautiful in every way.” Are you familiar with this saying? But in reality things are far from this. Look at the modern culture. Where do you see beauty? We “swallow” whatever mass media “feeds” to us, and they only care about selling us things; they change a few things, to make us start buying and spending faster. In reality this has nothing to do with beauty, aesthetics, or design.

Look at “contrived” fashion which has nothing new to create, so the same fashion returns every twenty years. But by then we don’t have any twenty-year-old things left. In other words, everything revolves around business, and it’s not the feeling of aesthetics or beauty that drives us, but the “feeling of the beauty of money” of certain magnates who instruct the courtier: “Give us something new; people no longer are buying the old stuff.” You know how this works. And then it’s all promoted to you and they convince you that you do not look pretty without it.

Of course all of this will gradually go away, the crises will even everything out, and “high fashion” will disappear. We will experience such hardships that nothing will be left of the fashionable consumer goods. A person will have a normal attitude towards the world, life. His brain will “change.” He will understand that he lives in a very serious world and he can attain eternity, perfection, so he will not waste his life on dressing his “animal” better, constantly buying it things, and fulfilling unnecessary desires: for wealth, fame, power, knowledge.

I think humanity will realize this very fast. They will only have the aspiration to attain the meaning of life; they will have this question. And other than finding the answer to this question, they will also be able to attain the meaning of existence and see it for themselves.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

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Question: There was a series of teenage suicides in Russia. People are lost; they don’t understand what is happening. How can we explain this phenomenon?

Answer: These “epidemics” will be recurrent. Right now it is teenage suicide, then something else, then another thing, and so on. What is this connected to? Teenagers, both boys and girls have a period when they do not fully perceive this life. They see it as something virtual that exists between this world and that one. At this time they are very sensitive to any bumps, which can even end in such a tragic way.

Teenagers do not feel death; they don’t feel the end. They are a bit above our world, somewhere in the air, and this is the way they treat the possibility of ending their life so tragically. Psychologists, sociologists, teachers, and educators know this. This needs to be eradicated as much as possible, teenagers access to the Internet should be limited, and we need to have a very precise government campaign regarding the “safety” of the soul.

I don’t think that these cases will decrease or disappear. On the contrary, their number will continue to grow because our egoism keeps growing and there is no answer to it, and it turns out that the person finds himself lost between the earth and the sky. Moreover, teenagers regard adults as the example of their future lives, and they completely disagree with this kind of life. They don’t even care that this life is financially provided for, they don’t like this life.

This is why many problems await us in the future. They will continue to exist in even darker states until we manage to unravel before them the full palette of the shining upper world that they can reach. This will be the part of the population which suffers most, which is susceptible to drugs, prostitution, and different problems. Now unemployment is adding to these problems, which also lead to very different problems; for example: Universities are closing, which means that the future is also disappearing. Young people do not see anything but hopelessness before them.

Why are there revolutions in North African countries? Many young people, including educated people who have graduated from universities in Europe, are returning home to Tunisia, Libya, Spain, and Italy and don’t know what to do since these countries are on the verge of an enormous crisis. Youth will be the part of the population, which suffers most everywhere; it doesn’t have a future.

The main thing for the other layers of the population is to exist in a relatively comfortable manner, but the youth don’t have this, it’s not enough for them, and they naturally will not settle. We need to think about the way to make them realize that there is a way to enter a different dimension, which will give them absolute fulfillment. If we present our method in the correct manner, people will want to bring it to life because it gives the person an opportunity for balance, an ability to become fulfilled regardless of work and corporeal commodities. Minimal necessities will be enough for them, and they will attain everything else by integrally participating in the environment.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

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Question: How important is the convention in Europe and how is it connected to the global state on the continent?

Answer: Throughout hundreds of years, Europe had considered itself the “beacon” of humanity. It conquered the world, defeated it, colonized it, and subjugated it, wanting to show the whole world that this is the way to behave. In this, Europe saw the future of humanity.

The result was quite the opposite; a good and bright future awaits neither Western nor Eastern Europe. And now the rest of the world, Asia, Africa, and so on will gradually be presenting their claims to Europe because the rest of the world was working for Europe.

If Europe wants to position itself correctly relative to itself as well as to the rest of the world in the way that the next few years will not boomerang back at it, it must turn to the new integral society as soon as possible, to introduce it there and to attract the rest of humanity to it. This is how it will show that its future lies precisely in this.

If Europe would do this, then naturally it would have a future and the rest of humanity will aspire towards it because it will correspond to the laws of nature.

However, if it does not start to do that, then this will be its general ruin. Very quickly, we will see how there will practically be nothing left of the Eurasian continent, possibly including even Russia. Meaning, that Europe, relative to the rest of the world will become the same as Africa is to Europe today.

This can happen very soon since the economy and society are very fragile and so integrally connected to each other that if there is a breakdown in one place, like there is now in the European Union, then it simultaneously affects all of the countries on different levels. Everything can collapse like a house of cards.

Europe must understand and realize that its future is in homeostasis with nature, in balance with nature, in the study of the nature’s trend. This is precisely what it should correspond to.

This is what the science of Kabbalah teaches: our integral society and mutual guarantee, the essence of which we are trying to explain to everyone. That is why our convention must be dedicated to this question, and also to working out how to address Europe.

We must be ready for the protest movements and demonstrations, which will be happening in all countries.

Now, the groups of North America are systematically passing out flyers with our comprehensive explanations and we see how the society is starting to apprehend it, feel it, and is demanding further explanation and bringing us towards various kinds of joint actions and so on.

We have to do the same in Europe. We need to prepare a package of explanatory material in advance, which must be properly prepared, well written and stated beautifully considering the different European languages and mentalities of each country. We need to seriously work on this in advance.

Introducing the masses to the system of integral education is the most important thing we can do in Europe.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/12/12

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Question: Our state is like that of a birth. A birth is a concrete action that either happened or not. However, if I ask this question now of my friends I’ll get all kinds of answers in the full spectrum, as if there are numerous tints of the grey color here. Is this the way it is supposed to be, or is it only one of the two, either black or white?

Answer: There is a very good example for this, the exodus from Egypt. It can be related to a single person who includes all of these qualities within him, since the whole world is inside of him. However it can also be seen as the exodus of many people of all types, amongst which there are men and women, the elderly and the children, infants, people related to the nation of Israel, and the Egyptians, the so-called “mixed multitude.” Everyone is coming out; everyone is running.

In this crowd, there are those who dreamed of this flight for many years and some who are following along with their relatives. There are children and infants who are led out by their parents. There are the elderly who would have no one to take care of them if they stayed. There are those who saw the crowd fleeing and just then decided to join.

But there are those who are going at the head of the throng who are determined to escape, and in front of them all, Moses is leading the way. Meaning that we see that among those who arrive at Mount Sinai are all types of people. And inside of a single person, reaching this state of the first unity above the mountain of hatred between him and his friends, there are also a multitude of desires and thoughts, from the high point in the heart which leads him like the forefather, Moses, and up to the most rough, vain desires.

In the end it’s required of them all, all so different and each one with everything confined inside of his spectrum of desires, thoughts and intentions, it’s necessary for all of them to be ready for the mutual connection as much as we, being below the Machsom, are capable of it. Of course, all of this is happening in a world of deception for the sake of egoism, Lo Lishma, but no more is required of us yet.

It needs to be understood that the spiritual approach is not difficult at all, but very simple. The problem is that we are not directed at the spiritual! I am not directed at unity! If I were able to remain in the aspiration towards unity for a few hours, I would have reached it. However, I don’t want it, and I am spending hours on all other possible things except spirituality, so in the end, life alone is not enough to reach it.

The problem is that we keep forgetting where we need to apply efforts. If you apply effort in the correct place, then it doesn’t matter if you have very little water, but you are using it to water a seed planted into the earth, this seed will shoot sprouts. While if you have a lot of water, but you are pouring all of it out into the desert sand, then nothing comes of it.

That is why the whole problem lies in the quality of intention. While in quantity, we are over-fulfilling it, skirting around, doing something, and we remain satisfied because we have used all of our strength. However, if you were to see how it really is, you would understand that you have not done anything in the right place at all. This is the whole issue. This is what we are working on and everything depends upon this.

Each one is already overfilled with theoretical knowledge, the science, and the articles. What remains is to apply the effort in the right place, only between the hearts, and then we’ll succeed. In our state today we can reach this within a few hours in order to at least touch the spiritual vessel, and then everything will be much easier.
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From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 4

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Question: There are several languages in modern psychology; for example, direct conversation or psychotherapeutic metaphor, the purpose of which is to create a fairytale for a specific person where he can defeat his problem. Through this language, the fairytale penetrates the person’s consciousness.

I know that you use different languages when teaching people. What is the best way to use them and where?

Answer: We have many specific articles about integral upbringing, about moving towards integration, unity, about coming out of one’s “I” towards “we,” from “we” towards “one” where even “we” becomes lost, and unity appears instead of it—just unity. There are many examples and images regarding it.

But we do not classify language because we do not use a psychological approach, the one used by the modern psychology, even though we approve of it and are happy that it has evolved so much that it helps us advance.

We do not have a system like this. I hope that once psychologists come to us, “break away” from their boundaries, and learn ours, they will create specific tables, workbooks.

We do not have this. We believe that our work is so multi-faceted and it is done in an ever-changing society with changing circumstances to which we always apply very different materials. We are very flexible. It is possible that during one lesson in a single group conversation, in a single discussion, you might experience several such states which might not fit into any clear framework of conduct consistent with the group.

I observe this during my lessons, when I have a face-to-face conversations with students and their  questions, which include materials from completely different levels and different forms.

Comment: One of these languages is the language of joking, humor, etc.

Answer: It is used constantly, wherever possible, but only to the extent that it is able to clear the air and to help with uniting because this is the only goal; in other words, you use whatever helps.

Humor is very good because it relaxes the situation. It frees the subcortex and helps the person to come “out of himself”—and the person enters a new level.

Humor reveals completely different communication and thinking possibilities. It is a method of rising to a new level. It is so unconcrete that a new degree of our development forms in it, and this is why we encourage it a lot.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #11, 12/16/11

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