Question: How can we awaken to the connection with the upper one faster every time?

Answer: You need to be aware of and gratefully accept what is taking place with you. And it all depends on the thoughts and desires of the environment. If you are talking about my personal participation in hastening the work, it lies in my engagement in the environment that constantly supplies the “fuel” to me so I may advance.

It allows me to keep a constant connection with the upper force and to realize that it doesn’t really matter how I feel in my egoistic desire about everything I receive from it: good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. Clearly, the most unpleasant things are the most authentic since I reside in my egoism and use it to verify and evaluate how pleased or displeased I am. I must be willing to accept everything that is occurring with me, as it is said: “Even when a sharp sword is raised over you, don’t despair in His kindness.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter what I feel; what matters is that I don’t lose the desire for the Creator. After all, “there is none else besides Him, the good that does good,” while separating from Him is the most terrible misfortune that can ever happen in my life. I don’t care about anything else; I only want to make sure I haven’t withdrawn from Him, and this is what I use to verify everything all the time.

And even after I have managed to grasp the connection with Him, despite the difficulties and problems, I keep trying to see all the obstacles and hardships as grounds for our connection. After all, this is the point from which I can come to it.

This means that I am already in the right state and only have an incorrect view of it due to my being flawed. Thus I work until I fully justify this entire state and experience great joy. But what matters the most is that regardless of what great fear, worry, problems, and troubles I am experiencing, I still don’t abandon the thought of the Creator. In this point of my connection with Him, which I am holding on to, I start building my state correctly.

This proves that the Creator is waking a person up with every opportunity the latter presents to Him. These fortunate chances are deliberately unpleasant for a person so that a person may reverse and seek only them.

This will demonstrate that I am rising above my ego, over my feeling bad, toward adhesion. And then I won’t view this situation as unpleasant, but rather as a condition that led to our oneness. I will feel that it includes in itself all the preparation and prerequisites, which woke me up and gave me determination, all the components of this exalted state.

Besides, is there any other way to reach the first point of contact with the Creator while rising from one’s egoism?
[41943]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/2011, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 19

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Baal HaSulam, Letter 19: “In the same woman…” “…grace is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” This means that during the preparation, the beauty and grace appear and the essence of perfection that one yearns and longs for. However, at the time of correction, when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,” then, “I shall see an opposite world,” because only fear and longing are the essence of the desired perfection. Then one feels that during the time of preparation, one was lying to oneself.

Question: Why is it said that during the time of preparation we are lying to ourselves?

Answer: It is so because I was longing for something which was a lie. And while suffering, I didn’t realize that this suffering was indeed fulfillment. It means that as soon as I change my attitude toward the desired, I discover that I am in the world of Infinity. It is regarded as “you will eat what is old.” I reveal an infinite fulfillment in my present state.

It is described that previously you were lying to yourself, thinking that you don’t have the desired fulfillment and you need to achieve it. But you don’t have to achieve anything except for the correction of your desires. You are already in the same perfect condition and only cannot see it since you lack the properties of perception, the corrected desires.
[41874]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/2011, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 19

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Question: When a person receives a blow from the Creator, he or she can logically understand that it is beneficial to them. But we live by our sensations and hence should move on from mental comprehension to an authentic feeling that it is truly for our own good. How does this transition occur?

Answer: You discover that the Creator does not send you blows. It is not a blow really; it’s just that the Creator awakens you since He loves you and wishes to bring you to the most beneficial state.You find that the Creator did it intentionally so as to raise you a bit above your egoism that you are residing in and that He doesn’t have an alternative.

Suppose you are lying unconscious and need to be revived, brought back to life. Obviously, when you are waking up and returning to consciousness, you feel bad and are suffering from wounds since you lost consciousness while being in critical condition. Now you are being revived. The doctors rejoice: “The patient is back!” But what’s to be happy about? Now he is screaming, hurting, and suffering…. Wouldn’t it be best to leave him unconscious? Certainly not!

Now you understand where it hurts and why. Now you must only create the right attitude to this suffering in you: “I am hurting where I lack the correct connection with the Creator. He is waking me up, wishing for us to love each other at the first step to affinity: my first spiritual degree.

From this degree, He radiates His attitude to me, illuminates me with His Light. And I sense this first spiritual step in its various manifestations as a bad state since my ego cannot bear this state of bestowal, love of others, the connection outside of me. I experience darkness, evil, and pain. I don’t desire it!”

True! I am aware that I don’t want it, that I feel bad. Who is giving this state to me? The Creator is. Why does He? He points out to me that if now I make an effort to rise above my feelings and switch my attitude to the one desired by the Creator, which He is demonstrating to me, then we will come in touch. And this must occur!

But you seem to be refusing: “No, it hurts! Take it away from me! I don’t need suffering or reward! I don’t want anything!” Well, if you don’t, you don’t; what can one do…

What can the Creator do? At any rate, He has plans for you. He understands that you are a fool, so He goes “around” you: He gives you all kinds of suffering and problems in life outside of any connections with Him, when you don’t understand or feel that it is He who is waking you up. He pulls on and stings you from every direction and arranges troubles, misfortunes, and problems for you.

Thus He exhausts you and then gives you a wake-up call so you may remember Him: “I see… There is the Creator. Perhaps, my problems are justified. Maybe, it’s for my own benefit.”At this point you change your attitude. Sufferings soften the flesh, and you are willing to bear more.

Then He sets before you the same conditions of the first degree of adhesion with Him once more, and this time your attitude is different to it. Frankly, it isn’t very convenient and doesn’t feel that good. It’s unpleasant, but we can bear it. You start to understand now that the encounter with the Creator is above pleasant sensations inside your ego and you must rise above your pleasant animate feelings.

You already possess a certain amount of tolerance and willingness to suffer. And then you begin working with the help of the group. You no longer scream: “No!” while on the threshold. You know that you have a group, the environment; you see that the Creator still hasn’t abandoned you and that you are still bonded with Him by the covenant.

You start employing the entire environment that He has arranged for you in life as the means for you to rise above your perception and start building relationships by using the mind, based on the analysis of “truth or falsehood” instead of “bitter or sweet.”

This is a discernment of a human rather than of an animal: “How should I build my relationship with the spiritual degree so that I rise above my bad sensation and don’t perceive it as such? I can’t help it; it’s necessary for me if I wish to be connected to the Creator.”
[41869]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/2011, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 19

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Question: What is the correct prayer?

Answer: True, in order to be transformed, we only need to pray. The correct prayer is expressed in the words: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.”

Together with the whole world, all the friends, all the others, I wish to come to a state where we are all unified and thereby bestow pleasure to the Creator. In relation to us, He is good and does good. There is none else besides Him. So are we good and do good in relation to Him. There is none else besides us.

It is said that He and His name will be one. In other words, the Light and the vessel, the Creator and we, come to oneness, adhesion.

Question: Is this the collective prayer?

Answer: Yes, since you pray for everybody. It is that very prayer, the intention, Abraham was so eager to kindle in Babylon. He yearned to cause immediate correction: “Let’s cry out, let’s do this!”

“To pray” is to judge myself: How corrupted is my state of existence and what am I lacking in order to correct it? That is, a prayer is rather an analysis of the situation than a plea to the Creator. There is no one to ask since the upper Light stays at absolute rest. It contains thought and emotion, but when you pray, it is as if you wish to impose your qualities and sensations on the Light.

That’s where the problem lies: We need to transfer the emphasis to self-analysis. A prayer means that I examine myself: What am I lacking, what do I wish the Light to illuminate in me? Where I find a flaw, that’s where it falls and works on. Hence, I need to find my flaws, my needs.

I stand before the immutable Absolute, and everything in it is for the good. If this is so, what can I possibly ask for? Even without my asking, He bestows abundance. So it follows that I have to find in myself the spots that need correction. And that’s what a prayer is about. It is totally directed at me, at the search of what I am missing in order to become similar to bestowal, to the Light.
[41783]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/2011, “The Freedom”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 19: A person is not ready for adhesion with the Creator all at once, but gradually, as it is written, “Goodness and mercy shall follow me.” That is why he creates yearnings, which are the beginning of adhesion, as it is written, “a righteous who suffers.” He suffers because the Creator does not desire adhesion with him. That is why the person feels yearning and sorrow without love, which is necessary for adhesion. He feels suffering which will turn into the delight of adhesion.

Question: How can we aspire to a connection with the Creator in states of suffering that He sends us?

Answer: The Creator does not send us suffering. Only goodness comes from Him, but in my egoism, I feel His kind attitude in the opposite way, meaning that I experience suffering. But this is exactly the “awakening” that is necessary for attaining the goal, for changing my egoism to bestowal. Then suffering turns into pleasure.

Nothing changes besides my attitude to the world, as it is written, “You will eat what is old.” You have changed yourself and your attitude to what happens. You have ascended above your will to enjoy, and therefore, instead of suffering you experience pleasure.

You used to aspire to imaginary sources of fulfillment, but now your aspiration for the Creator, your sorrow and suffering turn into fulfillment because you don’t want anything but this. You only want to desire Him, and this already fulfills you.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 19: A soul is a measure of yearning and longing….

Question: The concept of the quantity of yearning and longing can somewhat be understood, but what is the right quality?

Answer: Every person’s quantity and quality are determined subjectively, depending on the root of one’s soul and his mission. Similar to our world, there are all sorts of states we can measure by height and character, by the degree of one’s suffering or joy, the intensity of sensation, and the rate of their influence on a person.

Baal HaSulam gives just three examples for assessing them. Even though we differentiate much more, in the end, they all amount to these three, “in that place, at that time, in that woman” (these concepts are explained in the lesson).
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is the difference between a desire (Hissaron) and an aspiration (Ishtokekut)?

Answer: Desire (Hissaron) means that I simply want some fulfillment. For example, I am thirsty. Whereas an aspiration (Ishtokekut) depends on how much I really need it at a given moment, meaning how much I suffer now because I lack this fulfillment. This means that an aspiration is an addition to a desire and it measures the strength of the desire at a given moment, how much my ego is ready to suffer for the sake of reaching the desired goal.

In other words, how much are you ready to pay for this? Let’s see it now. You want to get it? No problem. How much can you give? We can measure your aspiration according to your answer. You say: “Well, a hundred.” “No, you should give a thousand.” “A thousand?” This is where you are tested with how much you are ready to pay. This is the way to measure your aspiration for the desired goal.

At the same time, a desire itself is simple. If something is free, I will take it. Obviously a person is evaluated according to his aspiration. A desire comes to us from the Creator, while we add aspiration through the environment. An aspiration is the fruit of our work, the result of our efforts.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: What are our plans regarding the education of Palestinian children?

Answer: We have students from Arabic countries and other Muslim regions. I do not see any difference between them and all the others. We have students from the Palestinian Authority, Iran; during the lessons, we receive questions from people from Syria and other places. One of the international meetings about educational issues within the UNESCO framework was organized by a Saudi prince, and we received a personal invitation from him.

Education is a world problem, and through it, we can establish connections over countries and differences. Of course, there is the question of religion, and this will remain a source of deep separation between people until, in the words of  Baal HaSulam, we establish a single religion, that of love and bestowal.

Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” that there is no other religion besides love. Everything else is customs that people have accepted. Let us hope that the different crises together with our dissemination will make the world understand that they need to rise above the differences.

The education that we are developing is common for everyone, it does not have any specificity. So I think that as soon as our Arabic brothers will want to accept it and will be ready for it, there will be a method waiting for them: We are preparing it in Arabic as well.

Moreover, since the times of Abraham, Islam has a movement called Sufism. I have met its representatives many times. Naturally, they understand what it is we are talking about, and we can work with them to disseminate the new method of education.

The problem is that radical Islamic circles do not recognize them: Sufis have been exiled from Arabic countries and live in the US and in England. I hope that this position will change because nature prevails regardless. We must go through these stages—The Zohar describes this particular course of development. Soon the transition period will be over, and people will feel that they exist in a global world.
[41081]
From Lesson 6, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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