Question: What is the secret of life?

Answer: The secret is to change the direction of this life from reception to bestowal, to “love for the neighbor” or at least to the principle, “Do not do to another what you yourself hate.”

As soon as you start to go in the direction of bestowal, you come out of your narrow world where you are locked and operate like a robot, following specific, deterministic laws that are set in advance. Nothing can escape the boundaries of the law. We only think this way because of concealment and lack of knowledge.

For example, suppose I am looking down at what is happening from the 10th story and I see how a car is about to turn the corner, whereas a person who is entering the street does not see the car and therefore gets run over by it. Or I see how a person leaves his car in a place he isn’t supposed to, but there is already a policeman coming in his direction in order to give him a fine.

I see all of this from above, but the people below don’t see any of it! But does this lack of knowledge enable them to say that this event is pure coincidence? For me it isn’t a coincidence because I see how everything was interconnected ahead of time. This is not just a fantasy, but a certain revelation.

Sometimes we look at a baby and understand that something is about to happen as a result of what he is doing. We already know it ahead of time, but he does not know because he lacks knowledge about himself. Therefore, we have no freedom of choice; there is only lack of knowledge.

The deeper we reveal this world, the more we feel how we are bound in iron chains. There is no freedom – not in thought, nor in desire, nor in action. The only thing we can do is change our direction. Our current paradigm is entirely aimed at reception for our own sake; it is completely limited and it is limited by ourselves or our desire.

However, we are able to change it to the opposite, from minus to plus! Start bestowing and you will see what you can do through it! You already have the root of that future altruistic desire, “the point in the heart.” You must only attract the force that will develop it. Then you will no longer be limited in this regard because you will come out of yourself to the outside!

After going through all of our development we will eventually reveal that the animate body we are placed in contains nothing “human” besides one single point! If you focus on the body, then you are an animal, and if you are focus on this point in the heart, then in it you reveal the human.
[28175]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Who Doesn’t Wish To Be Eternal and Happy?
Free Will Is Above Desire
You Will See A Reverse World….

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What should I do if the intention you give us before the lesson is gone the next instant?

Answer: There is nothing you can do; we have to keep renewing intentions! I lay the direction, and you have to stick to it. If you do, it means you are following me.

This is the reason you come to the lesson. It’s not to exercise your mind digging through the text! The essence of your work is not in using your brain but in making an effort to hold the intention.

You have to keep yourself on the course and follow me. I cannot keep reminding you about it each second, which would mean dragging you by force. Write it down for yourself and later try to cling to this thought. And it doesn’t matter how much of the text you will hear; the key is to work on keeping the intention. Intention is that very “magic force” (Segula) that reveals to you what The Zohar is describing.

If your intention reaches the required degree, you can understand The Zohar even in a language you are unfamiliar with; you can reveal it and start living in the Upper World, receive new organs of perception, that is, enter spirituality yourself. And it has nothing to do with intellectual guesses. A new sense has to emerge in you. Therefore, you have to exert your own effort aimed specifically at this and wait for the Light to descend and reform you with a specific action.

I can’t do it for you. I can only help and remind you, but not more. Therefore, it is written in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” and other texts that one needs to cleave to the teacher. This is exactly what we are talking about.

Hence, you must keep holding on to the guideline I provide in the beginning of the lesson and build it up. This constitutes our common work.

Every day for three hours of the lesson, you must remain in the same intention but make it more precise, sharpening it up bit by bit, day by day. You have to do it so that it won’t disappear but will get more and more clear, brief, and articulate, that is, more discerned.

Write it down; I am giving you a hint that will always bring you back on track. If you got lost, ask yourself: “What will become of me?!” That’s it: If you have an ache, you don’t need anything else.
[27664]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
How Much Do Your Eyes See?
Cling To The Source

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Kabbalah Study, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

No matter what we are reading, The Book of Zohar, the Babylonian Talmud, or the Bible (the Torah), all “sacred” texts speak of the work I am unable to perceive and understand. I have no comprehension of any of its tiniest details.

How does the mind, “understand,” work? When my mind possesses an example of what I see, hear, or read about, I am able to collect and arrange an image within myself, which corresponds with what is taking place outside of me. However, this method doesn’t work when we study Kabbalah. I don’t have any matching example. How, then, can I put an image together?

Suppose I say that ZA (Zeir Anpin) is “10,” and Malchut is “5.” How much smaller is Malchut than ZA? 10 – 5 = 5. Excellent! It means you do know. But what is it you know? Do you understand what ZA is? No. What about Malchut? No. What is “5,” the difference between them? You don’t know that either. Then, what do you really know?

However, we study these definitions since they are the Upper roots, and they affect our points in the heart, expanding them. It is the only possible act from the entire science of Kabbalah upon us, who are situated below the border dividing us from the Upper World. Therefore, as Baal HaSulam informs us in the “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 155, Kabbalists obligated every person to study the wisdom of Kabbalah since this action draws the Light that Reforms and returns us to the Creator.

The entire Torah was written without the use of commas, periods, and spaces between the words; from the very beginning to the end, it is one unbroken sequence of letters. Letters are desires, Kelim (vessels). The attributes of bestowal and reception, Hassadim and Hochma, which share a special connection build for us the shapes of the letters.

However, I have to create the same properties, Kelim, within me from my will to receive. When my desire exists in the properties of Hassadim and Hochma, then it will acquire the same forms of the letters. These attributes will live in me as 22 sets of spiritual stencils. I will be able to create words or actions from them. From words, I will build phrases, complete programs.

You have to equalize your desire with these symbols. Kabbalists passed this information to us in the form of symbols so that you could make the same forms from your will to receive as described in the Torah, starting with the first letter, Bet (the first letter of the word Beresheet, “In the beginning”), and to the last letter of the Torah, Lamed.

Take your desire, use it as dough, and sculpt these forms from it. The result will be a completely corrected you.
[27421]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Kabbalah: Wisdom Or Knowledge?
Letters Are My Properties

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: I feel that we do not extract everything we can from The Book of Zohar. How should we use a Kabbalistic text?

Answer: To start with, imagine that between you and the others there lie all the worlds, from the point where you are right now to the World of Infinity (Ein Sof). If you reach the other person and become completely one with him, it means you have reached the World of Infinity.

On this path, you travel the worlds, Partzufim, and Sefirot and obtain all sorts of details of perception. The Zohar colorfully describes them and tells you about various actions that make this connection possible.

Having begun approaching what the text is describing, you will start experiencing the spiritual world. The stream of bestowal from you to the others and from the others to you is, in fact, the Upper Light that you wish to uncover. It is the renewed connection with the others that you wish to correct.

While establishing this connection in the egoistic desire, you will probably receive a good life for a short while. However, following the example of the Russian Revolution, we see what such a path leads to. But if you are aimed at bestowal and wish that your connection be corrected by the Light, The Book of Zohar, and if you keep trying to find within yourself that what you are reading about, to know, unite with, and uncover it, then the text brings you corrected connections, and you extract from the book all that it offers.

Maintaining constant attunement, you truly sense how The Zohar expands your perception and fills it with new colors and inspiration. You see the renewed connection with your own eyes, and the states The Zohar is describing start emerging in it.
[27418]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “The Night of the Bride”

Related Material:
No Idols
The Bridge Over The Abyss Of Ego

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - 2 Comments →

Question: How do I detach from everything I know and receive the Light from the lesson as if I am a white screen and learn as a child does?

Answer: Sages say that teaching a child is similar to writing on a clean sheet of paper. That is how we begin our journey. A person must always imagine that his desire faces some “field” of other desires that seem alien to him. He has to assemble all these desires into one.

It doesn’t mean that they all will melt into unified oneness. No, each of them will exist independently, but the relationships between them will create wholeness and harmony similar to that between the parts of a healthy body.

In the initial state, in Infinity before the breaking, all of us were as one body. Then, it fell apart because the ego emerged in it. We must preserve our individual ego, but correct it. What does that mean?

Each part feels separated from the others and is distanced from the rest. Now, on one hand, we have to preserve our individuality and character, but on the other, above it, we need to discover such a connection as if the ego doesn’t exist. Yet, I don’t nullify it; rather, I work with it in order to overcome the gap.

As a result, the abyss remains below. Above it, I erect a bridge to all the other parts. Thereby, we receive the complete Light of NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida) instead of the minimal Light of Nefesh de Nefesh that we had in the initial state.

The Creator created us as a drop of semen. Later, getting corrected and returning to Him, we use all the “matter” of our ego to grow in order to become similar to the Creator. After all, egoism totally matches Him in power. This is the “help equal to Him,” the reverse side of the Creator. We, however, turn it into the face side by correcting the egoism that separates us.

Everyone feels as one, singular, and unique, and everybody uses his individuality to serve the others, directs it toward our mutual connection, bestowal. Thanks to that, I receive a bond 620 times stronger than my egoism and experience the Light of NRNHY.
[27407]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/23/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “The Night of the Bride”

Related Material:
How To Use The Book Of Zohar
The Abyss Between Darkness And Light

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - 2 Comments →

Question: If Kabbalah offers us a means to grow an eternal soul in us, it’s as if we choose from two possible conditions: One is the “I” who is handsome, rich, healthy, young, and eternal, whereas the other “I” is weak, transient, and mortal. Then why do people have such difficulty agreeing to study it?

Answer: Is this choice really up to us? If your egoism were given a choice between a good and bad condition, you would undoubtedly choose what is good. If you were given an empty and a full glass, you wouldn’t hesitate to pick the full one.

It isn’t a choice per se. You simply act instinctively as Nature dictates and you cannot do otherwise. If you chose incorrectly, it means that you either made a mistake or were sick. In other words, there isn’t any free will here.

However, the problem is that this opportunity to become healthy, handsome, perfect, and eternal is blocked from you by a wall, a concealment. You don’t see this state; you don’t feel it in your egoistic desire.

In this corporeal life, I feel and see what can give me pleasure, and even though it is temporary, at least it is clear. Such pleasures are approved by my ego, my animate body, my “Self,” all my family, all that I am connected to, and public opinion. This is how the entire world is living.

Suddenly, I am offered something that I have neither desire for, nor support from the others. How, then, may I choose it? Clearly, I will go with my beastly interests.

Therefore, we need to cultivate the desire for this hidden part called “the desire for bestowal.” It is something totally new, and when you get to know it, it will be a completely different world, a new reality. You, yourself, will be different because you will grow new organs of perception and new desires within you.

You will simply split yourself into two with a clear-cut line: On one side there will be everything that you have today and, on the other, everything new, without any connection between them. What you will have on this new side will be called your soul. However, you will have to cultivate this system from only the point you possess at the moment, which doesn’t have any aim or direction.

The problem lies in the fact that you don’t see what your benefit is. It is impossible to see it in your ego. And if you think that you picture and desire some spiritual world in your ego right now, it means you are seeing the same material world. You just think that it is part of spirituality, but, in truth, all of it is nothing but matter.

Yet, all this deceitful, illusory picture is needed solely to build the authentic one specifically with its help.
[27588]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Gravitating To Oneness
True And False Freedom
Become The Prime Minister Of The Creator

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Q&A - 2 Comments →

Question: Since I started my spiritual development, I have been experiencing various desires related to the corporeal world. I am constantly trying to shield myself from them, from the desire for power and knowledge, but it is pointless. Does it hinder my advancement?

Answer: Don’t work against your natural impulses and desires. There is no coercion in spirituality. We mustn’t annihilate our desires, violently suppressing and halting them within ourselves. Exist as you always have, as usual, but put all your effort in drawing the Light that Reforms.

Until now, you have been evolving led by your natural instincts given to you at birth as well as by what you received from your upbringing and the impact of the environment that has planted all the values and calculations in you. All this is derived from material nature.

However, now you are given an opportunity to receive a second nature, so let it develop. Don’t try to do something with it forcefully; it’s forbidden. Don’t interfere in the Creator’s work! Just put all your effort into helping yourself grow spiritually and touch none of your material desires and qualities. Don’t try to defeat them. The power of resistance comes from the Light which makes a restriction in you and hands you a screen.

Being a hero doesn’t mean the external suppression of desire in myself as if it doesn’t matter what is happening inside me and how I look on the outside. This is called the approach of Musar (religious ethics) which is unacceptable from Kabbalah’s perspective.

We need to let the Light that Reforms work, and all our Kabbalistic method is aimed at it. We only have to create the conditions for our point in the heart to grow the entire new world. That is what we are doing, and nothing more.

In the meantime, let us not worry about what is happening with our first nature in the corporeal world. Live, do whatever is necessary for your normal existence, and don’t fight your desires. However, all your attention should be focused on the second part of reality.

What will occur as a result of this second nature and how your first nature will change can’t be known in advance. Perhaps, at some point of your spiritual development you will feel great cruelty or stronger material urges for food, sex, family, power, and wealth.

Don’t try to correct them; just keep drawing the Light. Otherwise, you will only harm yourself. This is a very important warning. It hurts to see how many people get hurt while battling their desires.
[27578]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, “Body and Soul”

Related Material:
Who Doesn’t Wish To Be Eternal and Happy?
Take The Creator’s Hand

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A - 2 Comments →

Question: How can I keep holding the correct intention during the lesson? Is it by thinking more about the mutual guarantee than trying to sort out what I am reading about?

Answer: Imagine that you are driving a car. What do you worry the most about? Is it how to press on the gas pedal or navigating the steering wheel? If you need time to figure out the answer, it frightens me, and I am not going with you.

Obviously, the key is to steer the wheel. That is what we call “intention.” Intention is the direction in which I am driving. When it is correct, I can start pressing on the gas pedal to increase or decrease the speed as necessary to fit the traffic.

In other words, I press the gas full force only after I have picked the right direction. Otherwise, it may be best not to start driving at all and remain stationary, to prevent myself from going back. This is how we should ensure the correct direction, and to the degree that we are confident in its correctness, we may press the gas and increase the speed.

A person is designed so that he constantly looks for benefit, and during the lesson, there are three possibilities: 1) to understand more; 2) to feel more; or 3) to attain more. These three benefits are not related to each other because I feel in the corporeal desire, understand in the corporeal mind, but attain in the spiritual Kli (vessel).

In other words, experience and understanding come through my egoistic desire, but attainment becomes possible solely in accordance with the law of equivalence of form, intention “to bestow.” This intention is my primary concern.

Therefore, I am not worried about what I will understand and feel. The key is to receive the Kli that bestows, the desire, the intention which is something spiritual, “in order to bestow.” Before anything else, I worry about where to find spirituality.

Sages say that the Light is always there; take as much as you wish. However, what vessel can we bring to this ocean and scoop bestowal from it? We need some vessel of bestowal, some kind of container, even if it’s just a small glass. This place into which we may receive the Light is what we should be thinking about.
[27565]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

Related Material:
A Screen In The Black Cosmos Of Desire
Is There Life Without A Screen?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: During the study, if I feel a strong pain from an injury, how do I focus on the intention and not on the pain?

Answer: We understand that we are undergoing a certain process. As we continue along this process, to the best of our ability, we draw the Light that Reforms. The Light’s influence determines everything for us.

This action is dependent on the general system which contains the souls that have already merited the revelation, the souls that still remain in deep slumber, and the souls that are on the path to awakening. We are found in between the sleeping and those who are actively working in the general system, doing all they can to help others. With the help of the advice of the Kabbalists, we are trying to understand how to wake up, to transition from slumber to revelation, to true action as fast as possible.

We were given an opportunity in the group, the teacher, and the original sources. We are supported by souls in the spiritual world who yearn to help us the way adults help children. All that is needed is our efforts.

Now, we need to really clarify what specifically depends on us so that we don’t scatter our meager strength and only confuse ourselves. Indeed, if a person doesn’t know what to do, it is best he sit still and do nothing. If he does act, he must do precisely what’s required. After all, the world is full of foolishness and excess, and if we add our own part to it, we will simply bury ourselves under useless actions and turn too far off the path.

The most powerful means of advancement is the Light. Its influence, drawn as a result of every bit of our effort, completes every step taken toward correction. Therefore, in every state, we must first and foremost see the Light’s doing.

Having realized and accepted the fact that the Light is behind everything, we must be grateful for this and recognize our state as optimal for our advancement. As a rule, every state is correct if I realize that it comes from Above. This is enough for now I have a link to the cause, thanks to which I can awaken to independent action.

This action lies in being grateful for what is happening, positive and negative alike, and trying to achieve unity and revelation of the Creator, the quality of bestowal, out of the current state. If a person is no longer in deep slumber and can consciously connect his state with the Light, the Creator, and the group, regardless of what he may be feeling, that is certainly a good thing.
[27549]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, The Zohar, Introduction, Article “”Among All the Sages of the Nations of the World, There Are None Like You”

Related Material:
Always Renew The Intention
Do Not Ever Stop

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Can a scrooge reach bestowal?

Answer: There is no person who wouldn’t be able to change, provided he is mentally sound. We are all “sinners” and “transgressors.” This is why we turn to the wisdom of Kabbalah: We want the Light to correct us so that we will merit it, will become similar to it.

Nothing in a person can become an insurmountable obstacle. Everybody has an opportunity to correct himself if he avoids quibbling with and scorning spiritual work.
[28036]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, The Zohar, Introduction, “The Rose”

Related Material:
Permission To Reveal Kabbalah
Happy New Beginning, Happy New Year!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →