Question: Do we need to add more love from ourselves at each spiritual degree, and if yes, how is this done?

Answer: These degrees are still far away from us, but from the beginning we receive the desires (tools) for this thanks to our rising above our ego and trying to connect with the group, the friends, and to reach mutual guarantee and adhesion.

Thereby we build the vessels that can transcend one’s private calculation. I try to perform a general calculation, attempting to feel how another person can be more important to me than myself. These are already the first steps towards love.

Through these steps, we first of all build within ourselves an ability to love, beginning with the desire to simply feel the other. Afterwards, we want to feel the other like oneself, and then to feel him more than oneself, to begin to live in him, to want to fill him. Thus we reach a state where the Light of Hassidim (Mercy) fills all of our Kli, and thus we reach love.

We begin to receive the desires of the other (AHP) and to work with them so that filling the other will become our only concern. In this way we come to total devotion and absolute love.

When we are in absolute love, we constantly look for what else can be added to it. When we reach a certain degree, the Creator reveals to us more and more empty spaces, that is, higher and higher degrees. But when we reach complete love in the world of Infinity, it seems to us that as a result of complete mutual love and the absence of deficiency, a new dimension will open for us beyond the level of the world of Infinity. This is already the transition beyond the limits of love.

Indeed, according to our understanding and reason, absolute love cannot exist. If there is only white or only black, the creature loses its sensations. This is what happens with a son who feels the absolute love of his father. He has nothing to attain, nothing to work for, there is no empty space that he has to fill if he feels that no action of his, even the worst or the best, will change his father’s attitude towards him.

This is the problem. After all, each time he has to feel some response. In this interaction of bestowal and reception he perceives himself. Otherwise he won’t feel anything. His father, from his endless love, annuls the son. Thus the Creator conceals Himself.

And how it will be in end of correction, this we cannot tell now. Evidently, a new space will be discovered, in which the creature will rise to some kind of higher existence. It will happen after adhesion to the Creator and absolute love, after having felt the Creator fully.
[69643]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2012, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: An embryo in a mother’s womb turns as a result of the activation of physiological instincts. But how does a psychological change happen? How does this mechanism work?

Answer: First of all, when an embryo is being born, there is pressure from both the mother’s side (the pushing forces, the so-called labor pains) and the side of the embryo. It also helps this process in a certain way and advances.

Birth is a very serious complicated process, I would even say that it is somewhat tragic and threatening to both the mother and the child. Likewise, there must be some very serious pushing forces in our case, and nature has taken care of it by pushing us with different crises: family, identity, social, economic, ecological, and so on—through everything we do, that is, everything that makes up our womb.

In our current world, everything is gradually being set against us. These are the pushing forces—birthing contractions.

They are not yet as strong as they could be, but their culmination is near. We observe this in all the crises, and now on the development of the last economic crisis, which is literally threatening our lives. So, on one hand, we are already approaching the final stage, we are close to being born.

On the other hand, we do not feel comfortable inside in our current state. We plunge into drugs, depression, and different problems. We do not feel calm or comfortable on the inside. It is not just the world around us that is like that, but we are not able to find peace within. Nothing would change even if the world simply became indifferent for a moment: There are many conflicts and pressures inside us, which we want to escape but are unable to.

If we integrate and gather these inner conflicts and pressures into one single force between us, we will then add our own efforts to the maternal pushes, and of course will be born on a new level, that of “Man” or “Adam.” All this can be alleviated without “midwives” and “obstetricians,” but by using the helpful powers of society: social opinion, social influence, and pressure.

This happens when together we gather into this one unified image that has to be born, while on the outside our society works on integrating, connecting, discussing, explaining, and identifying all these forces around us. Then a person begins to understand this process inside him. This also pertains to upbringing, when we discuss our actions, history, purpose, and the purpose of all the conflicts; when we examine not just their cause, but their meaning: to bring us to a state where we all are like a single embryo in one mother-nature, which is pushing us outside of it onto the next level. Nature wishes to birth this embryo, and it needs to help nature to do this.

Helping nature is fundamental for us. Nature divides our birth either into a tragic or into a good and easy birth, which is called coming out with the maternal waters. What are “waters?” The water is an alleviating action. When we willingly aspire to this, we can easily cross the “Rubicon”—a natural, spiritual, and a psychological change.

Question: Does a person make his contribution to the spiritual birth process, like in the case of an embryo, by actively participating in the group of integral education?

Answer: Of course it has to be a group because the group represents the embryo! One person is not an embryo (he cannot be born); an embryo is specifically an integral connection between people when we prepare them for birth.

First small groups form, then bigger ones, then many groups appear. When they begin to understand each other, they become like one person in a group, and in relation to other groups every group also represents a single individual. This way they come together: like cells into organs and organs into a single body.
[69883]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #9, 12/15/11

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Question: What does it mean to “look at the world through the prism of the group?”

Answer: As man approaches spirituality, he discovers the connection between all parts of creation. This is called approaching the revelation of the Creator, after all the Creator is the power which unites, connects, and controls everything you now see.

Essentially, you only add a connection to the image of this world by revealing that everything is in a single net. We begin to see this connection through the connection in the group, which guarantees the beginning of this net for us.

We see the world in this form, noticing the strings that connect all the parts, which depend on one another and are governed by one force, which spins and rouses them through the change in connections between all these elements. The actual elements remain the same: The only thing that changes is the nature of their connection, and this constantly makes the world advance.

This is the essence of all the renewal that happens in the world, which leads to the descent of some and the ascent of others, and thus they interact between them. Everything is predetermined to the very last atom, not to mention people and countries.

Seeing that the entire world is governed by this net already is the correct perception of reality, which appears through perceiving the group as a certain big system, a single organism.

Besides, we begin to see ourselves as an active, operational part of this net of the upper Force, which governs and advances the entire world towards the final goal. We can activate this net and direct it towards a special form of development, depending on our behavior. The more we increase our work with the upper Force, which operates in this net, the nicer we will make the further development of the world, which rests on this net, like in a mother’s arms. This way we improve its future.

And the other way around, the moment we weaken and fail to correlate our movements with the movements that happen in the net, which are directed towards bestowal, the goal, where the entire humanity is directed, by doing this we weaken the upper Force which operates in the net. And then the entire world begins to experience big manifestations of their egoistic nature in their lives where different foreign forces, which are far from the spiritual and bestowal, operate.

Then these cruel forces rise and reinforce themselves in all the elements that are connected by the common net, which leads to sad consequences.

But the actual net and the elements in it do not change. Only these elements are egoistic, while the net is altruistic because this is a higher, spiritual system, the Light, which fills the space between all the parts. This is why everything depends on where we (the parts which exists in this system) connect.

This net has elements which maintain its existence; they are called “forefathers” or the Initial System (Merkeva). They are also called the “36 righteous,” which maintain the world (36 is not a number, but a certain notion in Kabbalah). There are certain preparations inside this net, without which it would not be able to exist, because otherwise, the force of evil and separation would blow up this entire system and break the mutual connections.

This is why there are corrected souls (“forefathers” and all the Kabbalists of all generations) inside this system who hold this world. And we need to try to add our efforts to their work. This is called “becoming ashes beneath the feet of the righteous.”
[71179]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/12, Shamati #25

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Question: Where does the point of our unity touch the rest of the world? Why is the correct intention not enough? Why do we also need the physical action of dissemination? What mechanism activates the people whom we address?

Answer: We are in the common system consisting of five “layers” of Aviut (the thickness of desire).

Overall, our world belongs to the zero or root degree of Aviut, more precisely, its rudimental part. In the language of Kabbalah this is called the root of the root of the root, or Malchut inside Malchut inside Malchut of the world of Assiya. Its desire is perceived in the form of matter that exists below the speed of light.

The electromagnetic phenomena, gravity, physics and chemistry, biology and zoology, and matter that we perceive and recognize, all of this is essentially desire of the lowest degree, separated from the Light that governs it. From the point of view of the person who attains, there is no Light in this desire.

This is why I work with matter. After all, a person must go by what he sees before him. And before me there is the still, vegetative, animate, and human nature of the material world, which is accessible to my five senses. This is where we start: not just from afar or a neutral point, but from the opposite place.

The matter of desire descends until Malchut of the world of Assiya and continues its journey down, into the egoistic area of the spectrum. 125 degrees of descent apparently are not enough, we fall even further in the five layers of egoism.

And the lowest is not just anyone, it is Israel. It was on the height of bestowal, and this is why it fell to the very bottom. On one hand, Israel is the “smallest of nations,” but on the other, it is “stiff-necked,” meaning the most egoistic. Consequently, it experiences the most ills, is distanced the most, but at the same time is able to use this world better than others.

Then, the Light causes “vibrations” and strongly influences Israel, and it begins to awaken. But coming back is no less easier, especially given the intermixing that took place over thousands of years, which also needs to be considered.

“Why do we need to care about others?” I am being asked. “Why do we need this connection with the world? Would it not be better to take care of ourselves?”

Where have you seen a head in proud loneliness? Why would you need it if not for the benefit of the body? It is written that Israel needs to become “a kingdom of priests” for other nations. They are not able to receive the method of correction on their own, but they will be able to do it through Israel, by being connected with it, through the breaking and the intermixing.

Thus, “Israel” is essentially a calling that obligates establishing connection with others. And this is only possible through contact on the material level of our world, the lowest degree of desire, which we perceive in this form today.
[71193]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/2012, Questions and Answers

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Question: You said that we should not set any laws and should not change anything in the systems existing today in human society, but we should only focus on one thing so that everything that we do would be for the good of the integral humanity?

Answer: At first, it may be to benefit a small circle: first, for the good of the group, then the country, then the world; this happens gradually as humanity develops.

However, pay attention that we are not forcing anyone! Everything happens according to the rate of our development. We will not be creating the KGB here as was done in Russia where they tried to build a just society with coercion. We are achieving changes in the person who sees it as a necessity for advancement. We have no choice. Either we get closer to an atomic war and the complete destruction of the world (although today it is already crumpling without any wars), or we change ourselves in the direction of the good! There are only two ways, and we are at the crossroads.
[70238]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 8, 1/5/12

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Question: Does a person feel the effect of the Light that Reforms? And if he does, how does he feel this influence?

Answer: The Light that Reforms constantly affects us. But its effect is revealed after a number of stages through which it puts us. It’s just like in the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light—only when Malchut reaches its completion and the entire realization of Keter occurs in it, only then does a leap to a new degree take place and Malchut of the upper Partzuf becomes Keter of the lower one. And once again there is a multitude of inner actions from Keter to Malchut, the degree becomes completed, and a birth on a new degree takes place.

This is why the Light always acts upon us, but naturally, as strongly as the power one uses to activate it. But even when the Light affects one in a good way, there is still a need for certain inner actions, until one begins to recognize Keter, the root, inside these actions: Why things happened the way they did, who did it, and so forth.

This is why when we begin to feel Who works with us, what for, what He wants from us, how He created us, how we need to react to Him, and the way we react to Him now, this means that we have reached the point of Malchut within us.

This way in the four phases of the expansion of the Direct Light Malchut suddenly feels: “Keter is an absolute giver, and I am an absolute receiver. I cannot tolerate myself the way I am! What do I do with myself?! I want to restrict myself!” Malchut has the power to restrict itself. Kabbalists tell us that on such a high level the power to restrict oneself and to stop working with the egoistic intention really exists.

But we do not have this power. Why not? It’s because we need to attain love and bestowal. This is why we have to connect with others. This is how we learn what bestowal is, and together we demand for the root, Keter, to give us this power.

Everything fully corresponds to the four phases of the Direct Light, either directly, from Above downward, or in the opposite direction, from below upward. There is nothing else.

Hence, when a person feels within him that he is beginning to perceive where the influence of the Light is coming from, this means that he has not only attained the realization of evil, but also the root of this realization.
[71171]
From Lesson 1, The Arava Convention 2/23/2012

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Question: If we intend to receive only for our own sake and wish to come out of this intention and bestow, what can we give? We have nothing to give because we only wish to receive….

Answer: We can give our desire to bestow to the group. This is enough. The fulfillment comes from the Creator, and the desire to bestow comes from us. I have nothing to give, nothing to bestow. I will give you what He will give me to give to you. This way we examine the connection between the Partzufim: The upper one, the one who receives first, gives to the lower one what it has received from its upper one.

We only need to build the intention between us, for me to desire to bestow instead of worrying about what I can bestow.
[71165]
From Lesson 1, The Arava Convention 2/23/2012

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Question: According to our reason (“within reason”), we don’t value the friends: We disregard them and we hate them. However, with faith above reason we must accept society’s opinion that it’s worthwhile to see them as great in order to get inspired. So it turns out that I can force my material body to smile and play, but it doesn’t yet enter my feelings. Is this called faith above reason?

Answer: If you feel hatred towards your friends and yet must arrive at the state when you begin to feel love towards them, this is not called faith above reason. It’s the same as when someone brings me a culinary dish that I am unfamiliar with and I don’t like it at first. I don’t even understand how people can eat such a thing. However, if I keep trying this dish every day, after a month it’ll seem to me that there is nothing more delicious.

It’s as if I have been told: “Check above reason that this is delicious, try once, twice, and then you’ll taste it thoroughly and will be convinced. Then, you will ask for it yourself.” However, this is not the kind of faith above reason about which Kabbalah speaks. We don’t value this kind of faith at all. If I am simply following my friends’ advice, this is how the whole of humanity acts; all of the commercials are built on this, convincing you to accept faith above reason that you need this thing and to buy it.

This is not faith above reason but is simply getting accustomed to any new thing that is still unfamiliar. We are drawing it closer and begin to love it within reason; we acquire a taste for it.

However, in faith above reason relative to the Light, I want it to be as elevated as possible in my eyes, meaning higher than all of my doubts. But I want those doubts to remain in their full height. My feelings and reason don’t agree with it, but I want to be similar to it to an extent that’s higher than my agreement with it. This means that I am connecting to a higher Light.

Let’s say that there is a wise man, the more I don’t understand him and simply realize that he is wise and decides things in a completely different way from my reasoning, the more I am impressed by him. Meaning that we should develop our faith above reason relative to the form clothed in our matter, relative to the Light, the Creator, and keep holding on to it.

The Creator suddenly clothes in me and says: “Let’s hug like brothers!” And at the same moment when I am about to hug Him, I must raise Him higher than me, exalt Him even more. Otherwise this is receiving within reason, receiving for the sake of myself, shattering.

Do you feel where the border lies here? This must always be above my reason, against my desire. And in this form I will be ready to connect to Him.

The difference between how I feel Him inside of myself, unite with Him, have contact with Him, and how I raise Him above myself, this difference is created by the screen. And then, even if I receive from Him, I receive it for the sake of bestowal. He reveals Himself each time and shows me that it’s as if He is the same as me, while I constantly want to see Him higher than myself, raising Him ever higher. This means that I am protecting myself and I take care so that I always have the screen.

Faith above reason is my protection from receiving for my own sake. One can speak about this endlessly, while on the other hand, there is nothing else besides this. You must unite with all created beings, beginning with Adam HaRishon, like one man with one heart, and the Creator must constantly remain on the very top of the mountain for you.

If I intend to attain this within myself, to unite as equals, then this is called within reason. However, if I aspire to constantly retain it above myself, this will be above reason. What is important here is my tendency, my aspiration, so that the Creator will be above me. I don’t connect with Him simply, on equal terms, like two friends who feel themselves as equal, but I always retain Him being above.

That’s why I wish that there always remains something that I don’t fully understand or feel. This will mean that I am aspiring ever higher and higher. As long as a person has questions and doubts, it’s thanks to them that he keeps developing.
[70804]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Question: People differ in qualities, and there are people who have a special role. They are the carriers of the method of integral upbringing and education, and they must teach, convey, and tell all of humanity about it.

Answer: True, there are people with high sensitivity and susceptibility toward this specific integral method. About six to ten percent of people in the world strive toward integral interaction. They represent the vast variety of altruistic organizations, fighters for different freedoms. These are not revolutionaries, but fighters for the environment, protection of wildlife, and so forth. This number includes volunteers who help others such as the poor, the hungry, and so on.

However, these are people who simply strive toward this kind of communication, toward integration. As a rule, they do not have a high and deep level of understanding of the integral system. Nature made them this way.

Then, there are people who by nature are very real and very zealous egoists. As we see from our studies, they are not included in the six to ten percent of natural altruists. These are very regular egoists, and the understanding of the need for integration becomes revealed in them because of their desire to understand the meaning of the world, existence, and the law of nature, its plan. They want to know where evolution is taking us, why it is so binding, and so forth.

These are scientific people who wish to delve into the very essence of evolution. They make up the squadron that leads humanity toward the goal. Nature did not make them altruists, but their altruism develops according to their research and realization of the need for this process.

We are trying to find these people in different corners of the world; with the help of a dedicated dissemination system, they come to us. Currently, there are around two million people around the world who are connected with us, despite their origin, religion, nationality, and lifestyle.

They are united by a common aspiration to correctly realize man’s advancement toward the goal, reach it, and change the direction of humanity so that instead of advancing through suffering, it will advance through the realization, meaning intentional, conscious unification. We are trying to find a connection with these people and organize them.

Question: Can these people participate in the creation of the integral upbringing system?

Answer: Absolutely, they are the ones! We are preparing them. We have a course for leaders of integral upbringing and education where we do special training, including working with people, teaching group games, active events, and primarily making an analysis in groups where people gather to discuss themselves, society, and all the problems that can appear between them.

We purposefully cause special problems in these groups. Then, they divide into subgroups such as defendants, prosecutors, critics, judges, jury, and so on, and they discuss these problems. These are very serious discussions.

We really do not invite psychologists to participate since we want people to develop internally, independent from the enormous psychological apparatus and the entire mass of collected information. We want them to regard it from the point of view of an integral goal. With psychologists, everyone works on his own part.

We have plenty of materials regarding this and a lot to work with.
[71096]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #10, 12/16/11

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Question: It is pretty clear to people in a regular educational system where they should make an effort. For example, a student in school pays attention during the lesson, takes notes, does homework, makes a lot of voluntary intellectual effort, and sacrifices rest. When the person grows up, he does the same: He works instead of having fun. These efforts are understandable. What are the integral efforts over egoism? Is there a place for volitional efforts?

Answer: In general, there shouldn’t be any. When a person properly positions himself in relation to the group, the environment, he arranges it to have a positive influence over him and for him to have a positive influence over it. Then, this precise interaction works so that a person changes willingly, without noticing it himself. Basically, he makes very little volitional effort to evoke the group’s positive influence.

Indeed, if I make a small effort in the group, and the group, composed in a special way, reacts properly, this proper group set-up organizes and forms a force that influences me. The group’s reaction to my request changes me immediately and correctly. When I exert a little effort and make a small request of the group to change me, I receive a thousand times more than my impulse, and I change. In other words, the group is a special inverted amplifier that comes back at me with such a degree of reverse connection that it forces me to change.
[71094]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #10, 12/16/11

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