Fundamentals Of Kabbalah – 07.24.11
Posted on July 24th, 2011
Question: What is the reason for the fact that when we read The Book of Zohar and keep a very tangible intention, it suddenly disappears, and we understand that it has disappeared only once we remember about it?
Answer: That’s obvious! This is given to us so we would demand the sensation. We are unable to keep two thoughts in our mind. What can be better than attuning myself correctly before reading The Book of Zohar, together with the friends, in a circle, and inside of it desiring to reveal what we are reading?
However, what happens is that I attune myself and start reading, and suddenly I become immersed in the text slightly more deeply. Then I no longer use it as “Segula” – the special quality of the Light, wishing to reveal it in the connection between us. Instead, I switch my attention to the text itself, aspiring to understand it and to attain it, the way I read regular books, wishing to find out what they’re talking about. I don’t perceive what is written there as something that happens inside of me, between us, inside of us, but as something that exists outside of me. I immediately shift to the external picture.
After that, all kinds of alien thoughts come to me and I start “traveling” in these fantasies and calculations.
This happens until a person sees that he is unable to come out of this and it deprives him of the right approach where he would literally be able to “latch on by the teeth” in order to hold on to the right attitude to the reading.
What should he do? Eventually he reaches a demand that he needs the sensation—not to get to know the text or hear it, but to enter this picture, to attain it. He wants this to happen, for this picture to become clear to him. Just as he is in this earthly reality now, so he has to find himself inside of that spiritual reality.
Therefore, this entire confusion, all of these states have to bring us to such despair that we will desire only the sensation, while clearly realizing that we are incapable of anything on our own, even of keeping the intention. But nevertheless, we will clearly discern exactly what we do need.
Then, on one hand you understand that there is nothing you could do and there’s no point even in opening up the book. You reach total despair. But on the other hand, you know that you are unable to leave this path because your entire life is in it. And then, you receive it….
This point is truly critical because from it, you can enter the spiritual world. And that is what really happens.
[49094]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/11, The Zohar
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Question: How do we build concealment in the period of preparation, and how do we conceal the Creator if we don’t even sense Him?
Answer: I’ll answer briefly: This entire work is done only with the friends, in the group. Friends are also concealed from us, and none of us knows the true degree of another. The group, in its true form, is also concealed from us, as is the teacher.
Our task is to build the concealment, that is, to finally begin to clarify that I perceive everything to the extent of my lack of correction. Therefore, I need to make corrections to my ego and picture everyone as the greatest of their generation, existing in a state that’s beyond me. I must attain a state where I have tremendous respect for concealment, wishing for it to turn into my attitude toward everyone else.
It is on this screen of concealment that I must build a new picture of the world, and this whole picture will be drawn or molded from the importance that I impart to each phenomenon. If I do this, then gradually, I’ll begin to work against my ego and learn to perceive the spiritual world, that is, to draw the picture of the spiritual world. After all, it doesn’t exist outside of me, but only within.
[48820]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/2011, Shamati #174
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Question: If I try to direct the world toward the goal of creation, could you say that I give the guarantee for the people? Is there a unilateral guarantee?
Answer: Yes, you move people forward. They cannot show reciprocity in return yet. Nevertheless, this is progress, and it is very important.
We should understand that our mission is to advance the world, and our progress depends on its steps. Of course, this dependency is not direct, but moving the world forward requires serious effort. We don’t do this at the expense of our inner efforts; however, we will not be able to develop internally without making a contribution to the development of the world.
Everything is arranged in the form of an integral system. I, the group, the world, and the Creator have to be a single complex. This is why now we need to take care of everybody. As Baal HaSulam writes, the entire world is one family and nothing can be done. Focusing on a narrow range, remaining in one niche, we will not achieve the desired result.
On the other hand, in going out into the world, we have to be cautious because we can lose our principles and slide into a purely psychological approach of “Let’s be close to each other, let’s be friends.” No, it will not work. As in Russia or in Israeli Kibbutzim (communities), it will be a connection devoid of internal force.
A connection requires the force that unites us, the upper Light. You have to address the world with Baal HaSulam’s materials, not necessarily with the texts, but with these messages, with these principles. Gradually, little by little, you have to explain to people that this comes from the science of Kabbalah.
The path is long, but you should be clear on this by now. You have to be immersed in the method, saturated with it. If you do not constantly study Kabbalistic materials, if you do not absorb it, digging deeper and deeper, you will feed people only nice words, New Age or mysticism. You, yourself, won’t notice how you will slide down.
If a person does not dedicate a few hours a day to serious studies in a serious group, if he does not work on this in the morning and in the evening, he loses his path. Religions, beliefs, mystical traditions, and the like stem from this. Everything came from Kabbalah.
Moreover, our egoism, our world call for concessions, saying: “It does not cost you anything. Add a little here. Change a little there. You may miss something, but you will reach people.” No, you will not reach people. You will come to them without your strengths and without a spiritual force, already corrupted.
This is a very big problem. That is why when a teacher leaves, good, strong groups lose their way, lose strength and wither.
[48812]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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Question: We are now in something like an interim period, idle time, between conventions. How can we strengthen the mutual guarantee to move forward?
Answer: You need constant work. What is the difference whether we hold a convention now or not? A person does not know when he gains the required measure of effort. He has to yearn every new day in his life in anticipation of the moment when he will able to perform bestowal to friends, and through them, to the entire world, and through it, to the Creator.
I have to analyze my inner states, what my thoughts and intentions are, to what extent during the day I try to reveal the goal, whether my heart is imbued with this aspiration, whether it wakes up, whether I can commit myself to this, and whether I can hold this thought against the background of all other actions, whatever I do. From this, I can see how much I have moved forward.
We have only one possibility to reach the spiritual world: by constantly working on our desires and increasingly bringing them closer to the feeling and our understanding of bestowal. Changes should happen within us, in our desires. Therefore, every moment that is dedicated to this advances us along the path.
Then, everything depends on the person. In his opinion, what kind of movement forward should it be: individual or worldwide? If he wants to reach the goal of creation, this movement is possible only on a global scale. Everything below this benchmark does not work nowadays.
In the past, the group or the teacher was enough, but today, we are tied into the whole world. The one whose actions, day after day, move our world group and the entire world toward correction at least in some way can see that this stimulates him and his own progress. In essence, individual progress is an investment into others.
Besides, you should try every day to add some quality to what you give to others in your correspondence, blogs, and internet projects. We can bestow to friends only when we merge with them, when we understand them, rather than try to foist onto them something that we like. In addressing people, we should hand out, disseminate, that which is as close to them as possible. We should “clothe” in them.
Love is when I take the other person’s desire and fill it according to what he or she wants. Otherwise, we will not be able to approach anybody.
[48817]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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Question: In the material world we know how to measure acceleration. But how can we do it in our spiritual progress, with the help of what?
Answer: You measure the acceleration by evaluating your connection with the group. You don’t have anything else. This is why one common soul was broken into many souls – so you would have a means to change, a place to work and make efforts, so you could assess how far or close you are to them – and not simply to people, but to their desires to reveal spirituality, the Creator. You check whether you are among these desires, together with them, so that in the right connection, in the mutual guarantee between you, you will reveal the Creator.
Therefore you can assess your spiritual state only in relation to these desires of your friends – how close are you together with them to the upper world.
Question: But where is the acceleration here? How can it be measured?
Answer: From one day to the next, from one minute to the next, you evaluate this connection. There is a distance between you and others, and you assess whether it is becoming reduced or not, how, with constant speed or with acceleration. Acceleration is speed that increases at every moment.
[48922]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbaalh Lesson 7/22/11, The Zohar
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Question: I think that I have already torn myself away from my ego. What do I do next?
Answer: You cannot tear yourself away from the ego. It is a great and lengthy work that continues through all the degrees of your spiritual ascent. This is because the higher you ascend along the degrees of the spiritual worlds, the more your ego grows.
You are presently in a state where, indeed, you barely feel the ego at your current degree. What can you do about that? I think that you don’t study enough. If you study more, together with us and more intensively, your ego will have no choice but to grow quickly.
The growth of the ego depends on whether or not you have the tools to work with it. If you’re connected to the group, to dissemination, to our lessons, and to my blog, then your ego will grow every second, and you won’t be able to escape it. You will discover that it’s terrorizing you, and then you will be able to work with it. However, if you’re weak, you will not be given this kind of ego, and you will sit there peacefully and think that you’re already an angel.
In reality, this cannot be. If you don’t feel the blows of the ego every second that arise in us so that we could correct them, all that it means is that you’re not yet sufficiently connected with the group and the study.
[48577]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 7/17/2011
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Question: In his article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Baal HaSulam writes that we have to act without any payment, without any compensation, and without any admixture of self-love. How can we cleanse ourselves from the expectations of reward, of good results?
Answer: You have the tools: the Kabbalistic method called the Torah and the group. If you want to unite with the entire group and build a future world in it as a proper example for everyone, do this.
How can you unite? You can unite through the Torah. The Light in it reforms. Everyone should feel how much he is disconnected or connected with others. Each must try to check all the time whether he gives an impulse to connect.
Finally, our aspiration is necessary during studying. Where is the prayer during the lesson? Where is the prayer that motivates you to unite?
There is a common network; however, its threads are cut off, and we have to reconnect them. We come to the lesson to study the broken ties between us and to understand how to weave them back together. These are the results that we should expect from the lesson. Are we expecting them?
[48485]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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Question: I visited a tent city that young families started up in the center of Tel Aviv as a sign of protest against the high prices of housing. In the evening people there get in a big circle and take turns speaking everything that’s on their mind into a microphone. Any person is allowed to speak. If I sign up for the list of speakers, what would you advise me to say?
Answer: “The end of the action is contained in the initial plan.” First of all, what do we want to achieve? We want to achieve a solution to the housing problem for students and young couples – people who aren’t well-off yet and who are just starting out in life. We can do this only if we become a factor of influence and pressure on the government.
We think that the government has enough money for different needs. So let them express a sensitivity to our demands. A member of parliament receives tens of thousands of shekels a month, but a student does not receive anything and in addition, pays for his studies. It’s impossible to live that way. The government has to decrease its expenditures on its own self. I am not talking about the realms of safety, education, or healthcare. We do not intervene in these matters. Let’s suppose that everything is fine there.
We are talking about the government: The students should receive whatever amount they require. Young couples want to create a family and to live, so let them have a home. Let them be able to rent a simple family home at the initial phase of their life together, until they can buy an apartment of their own. Or give them an offer to buy a home right away at a normal price.
The government has land. A square meter of living space costs 500 dollars at most, even it’s not a mass construction area. Imagine: for $50,000 you could buy an apartment that’s sized 100 square meters. But today you have to invest say, $300,000 in it, which is sixth times more than it can really cost, all-inclusive.
Why does it have to be that way? How much can you make off of people who have no money?
Therefore, they are right. The only question is: How will they be able to organize together? They have to become a powerful lobby, a group that successively exerts powerful pressure until the goal is attained. Besides, they have to keep going beyond this as well. In this country, there are many other things other than housing that could be improved. But the government won’t improve them unless you obligate it to do it.
The government is constantly under pressure from coalitions and lobbyists. Therefore, unless you implant yourself in this system as a group of pressure, from the inside or outside, you will get no result.
That means the question now is: How can we organize ourselves so our protest won’t turn into a festival? I wouldn’t even be surprised if there are people there who are trying to do that on the sly. After all, the issue at stake is important and not simple because any government in the world takes great care of itself and takes the most diverse measures in this respect. This is natural because every authority has to stand its own ground. How else can it stay in power?
Therefore, the protestors need real, powerful, reliable, and serious organization, rather than just slogans said into a microphone. Of course, this is good and necessary as well, but if that’s where everything will end, then they will be even more looked down upon, and next time they or their followers will have a very difficult time. They have to understand what kind of responsibility they have. If people rise up for new protests in the future, their success will depend on today’s struggle and its outcome.
It’s necessary to use the services of good, real consultants in order to achieve unity and mutual guarantee among one another, in order to get organized correctly, in order to understand how to exert pressure, how to work with the public, how to attract new people to their side, and how to communicate with the mass media representatives and with the government. They need a very powerful internal organization and experienced advisers. Otherwise they won’t succeed.
I saw the same thing happen in Spain: Everything began very seriously. The protest action was joined by couples aged 30 – 40 who were left without work. These were well-bred people with higher education, who completed European universities. They included engineers, sociologists, programmists, and many others who were left jobless. It might be possible to find some kind of common labor job, but these kinds of people had no chances – they are simply helpless.
And so, at first they occupied the city square in Madrid. However, they were unable to get organized properly and gradually they dispersed. As a result, the protest disintegrated and their places in the tents were occupied by other people, who got used to living on the street anyway. The mass media stopped broadcasting the event, the government happily waved its hand, organizing free food, showers, and toilets. As a result, the government is demonstrating the presence of a “democracy,” while the homeless have a place to live until the winter comes. When it does, the tents will be abandoned and will unnoticeably disappear.
This is a very vivid example of a lack of organization. Here in Israel the protestors who have gathered are also well-bred, and that is their weakness. After all, in this kind of situation it is necessary to get organized and start exerting pressure. This is not the Egyptian revolution, it’s not a spontaneous uprising, and therefore it is necessary to have clear order. In this case it is more difficult to aim the protestors in a common direction, to organize them because they are more reasonable and individualistic. The shouldn’t take an example from Egypt and other countries because the people going out on the streets there are a different type. In this case we are talking about Israelis who are difficult to budge, separated, and egoistic. Here every person makes his own calculation. Taking all of this into consideration, it is difficult for me to say whether or not they will achieve success.
Perhaps they will nevertheless understand that they need a strong organization and a clear action plan: pressure on the government, publication of declarations, addresses to certain people or organizations. They have to stay on top of the headlines, and not just while the news is fresh. Otherwise they will be forgotten in a few days. At some point the tents on the public square will stop being news. A person will read the newspaper headline, “The 40th day of the tent protest” and will go on to the next article.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, “Arvut”
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