Entries in the 'Spiritual Teacher' Category

Set the Intention

525Question: What is intention?

Answer: Intention helps you engage with me so that I can influence you more.

And if you bring me a gift, you will get more from me, not because I owe it to you, but because you will demand more from me! Then you will hear me more, feel me to be more obliged, and absorb more from me.

We are in a world where we can start interacting, literally from very primitive, simple egoistic relations, and even below egoistic, the most mundane. They will influence our spiritual relations with each other, the beginning of the spiritual perception.

Our world is wondrously created as a prerequisite for spiritual ascent; it is where you can begin developing completely from scratch without relating to the next world in any way!

Question: Within a Kabbalistic text, what does your intention mean, and how does it work?

Answer: I live in it, and you are in connection with me; therefore, it is all transmitted to you.

I make no intentions in regard to you; I just absorb the text. I am at the particular level this text writes about, and you, in relation to me, get a small part of it. After all, there is a need on your part to receive from me. Therefore you raise your desires to me, and I raise my desires to feel what the text says even higher, to the Kabbalist who wrote it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Set an Intention?” 12/3/11

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Don’t Let Others Decide for You

961.2A student asked the master, “You said that if I understand who I am, I will become wise. But how do I do that?” The teacher replied, “To begin with, take away from people the right to decide who you are. One will say you are bad, and you will believe him and get upset. Another will say you are good, and you will rejoice. Whether they praise or criticize you, believe in you, or betray you, as long as they have the right to decide who you are, you won’t find yourself. Take away this right from them, and from me, too.” (Parable)

Question: Is it possible to be free from the opinions of others?

Answer: When I see how others judge the world, me, my teacher, and my science, it does, of course, sadden me to a great extent. But in principle, it does not last long or affect me significantly. I find a perfectly sensible answer to it.

Question: Doesn’t it motivate you to make changes?

Answer: No, not at all! That is long gone!

Comment: This means they can no longer change you.

My Response: No one can.

Question: Explain to someone who worries that any opinions can change him. How can he manage to stand firm, avoid all traps, criticism, and so on, and keep moving forward?

Answer: It may take years to achieve this. But I took this upon myself many years ago, and it no longer bothers me.

Question: So you latched onto a goal, a teacher, and that’s it? You couldn’t be swayed by any means?

Answer: By no means.

Question: So in reality, does a person need to hold onto something firmly?

Answer: Yes, to hold on tightly.

Question: Even when doubts arise?

Answer: Doubts come intentionally to make a person hold on.

Question: Is it possible to find oneself without the influence of others? After all, you had a teacher; there was an influence.

Answer: Without the influence of the teacher on me, I am nobody!

Question: But you were looking for someone who would influence you. How can you determine if it’s the right kind of influence you seek?

Answer: During the first few years with him, I still traveled, visited other places, and tried to find out what suited me.

Comment: You are talking about yourself right now.

My Response: Yes, about me and my teacher! And I asked him, “How do I know that you are real? In the thousands of years that Kabbalah has existed, how many like you have there been? Where are they, where are their students, and what happened to them?” He said, “I don’t know.”

Question: Is this called “teacher’s help” to answer like this: “I don’t know”?

Answer: Yes. You have to check for yourself.

Question: So, he doesn’t try to prove anything; he says, “Check it yourself”?

Answer: Exactly.

Question: So was his influence on you like this: “See if it suits you or not”?

Answer: We sit down, we read, we talk, but we don’t delve into anything personal.

Question: Does personal mean whether it’s your place or not?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So do these clarifications take quite a while for a person?

Answer: Gradually, you grab hold more and more, then let go, fall, and then rise and grab hold again. And like this you move forward.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/31/23

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Annulment before the Teacher

165Question: When we learn to annul ourselves before the teacher, do we learn to annul our egoism and do we become included in the upper degree? What is the spiritual meaning of this effort?

Answer: It is necessary to annul yourself before the teacher in order to understand what he says, accept what he says, and connect with what he says. These are natural things.

Question: How does adhesion with the teacher and with other Kabbalists happen?

Answer: It happens through the equivalence of qualities, like one friend with another. If you can become like a friend when you understand him, he understands you, and there are no differing opinions between you, then it turns out that you and he are as if in the same place, and therefore you come closer to each other.

Question: Can we say that the teacher is the Creator for us?

Answer: In general, yes. Because you receive from him the entire view of the Creator. The connection with the Creator happens through him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?“

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What Are We Correcting?

963.4Question: Where does suffering come from? What is its root? In Kabbalah, we study the light, the vessel, and the descent of light—the Creator’s desire to delight the creatures.

Answer: If you take part in the spiritual process, you take part in these pleasures. If not, the lack of pleasure drives you to participate in it. Look at yourself, the way you are spinning around in the world.

Question: Yes, I am driven by suffering. And the world? We can see where all this is leading it. Will people really understand anything based on the current events?

Answer: I do not know if they will understand or not. At the same time, the Creator gives the solution, He corrects the conditions of the problem. Then, it is even more difficult to reach a solution.

Question: We have learned that in the past, the Temples were destroyed as a consequence of breaking some degrees in the spiritual worlds. What are we correcting now?

Answer: Now we are correcting people. We must show them the way to the right state, then we will stop engaging the bad forces of nature, they will not crush or destroy us because we will act correctly. This way we will quickly come to a correction.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/20/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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Between Multiple Authorities and a Singular Authority

165Question: How can we enter under the authority of a teacher in order to move by this to the authority of the upper?

Answer: To do it, you need to be in connection with your friends and then compare how connected you are with them, with the teacher, and with the Creator. All this connects together: Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.

Question: In the Shamati article “What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?”, Baal HaSulam writes that there are multiple authorities and there is the authority of the Creator, the singular authority. According to the teacher’s advice, we should be in wholeness, in connection. How can we oppose multiple authorities with the authority of the Creator at every moment of time?

Answer: Think about it all the time.

Question: Can we win this battle by constantly changing multiple authorities over us and finally come to “together”?

Answer: Of course! By the way, this is not so difficult. It is harder to start and get organized, after that moving forward is no longer a problem. That is, of course it is a problem, but it is no longer such enormous work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 10/21/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 10 “What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?“

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The Path to New Sensations

276.02Comment: You said that it does not matter what material you are given. For example, someone wrote something for you, and it is through the intention that you put power into this text.

My Response: Indeed, I do not care what kind of material. Who cares?

Let’s say we are in a forest. You tell me about a stump, another person tells me about a bird, a third about a flower, a fourth found a mushroom somewhere, and so on. You are trying to tell me or to pull a picture of the forest out of me. So, what difference does it make to me where you start?

After all, I want to tell you about that path in the forest that leads us to the hut on chicken legs. Therefore, no matter what you tell me, I will still transform this information in a way that it is useful for you, and you will be able to correctly navigate the forest.

Question: What I mean is that you put intention into the text. What is “intention” in this case?

Answer: It is very simple! You have a small desire—to find your way in the upper world in which you are practically not present, but your point exists there, i.e., your small desire is there.

If it is not present, then you will sit and listen to me like a cat who supposedly listens to a symphony orchestra playing. And if you have a point in the heart, the rudiment of your next external organ of sensation, then through my sensation of the upper world I include you in myself like a little baby. And you begin to receive some fulfillment, some vibrations that come to you through me.

Actually, you do not even receive them because you cannot have them since there is nothing to receive them in, but they begin to work around you, wash you like waves wash a stone on the shore, roll you around. You begin to gradually change. It seems to you that you are getting fulfilled, that you are changing, that you are beginning to imagine something. This is how you get new sensations.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Set an Intention?” 11/29/11

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Devotion to the Goal

961.2Question: The Creator has let me feel that if I have the correct envy for my teacher I can use his example and hold onto connection with my ten and through it with the Creator. How can I properly help my friends envy you in order to strengthen our mutual guarantee?

Answer: I think you should only envy my consistency in aspiring to the goal.

I was about 30 years old when I began to study with Rabash and since then I have not turned in any other direction. I have gone through many various states: descents, ascents, being further and closer, but every day I have prayed to not get further from my goal in any way. This is the main thing.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/23, Writing of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Masters of Spiritual Heights

750.03It is very important to feel confident on the spiritual path. We can only rely on our great teachers who have already walked this path and paved spiritual steps for our ascent. It is like a group of climbers making their way to the top where the strongest go first and cut the steps for those behind them.

This is how we should follow the great Kabbalists, learn from their books, and do what they advise. And if we follow all their instructions exactly, we will definitely succeed.

They do not hide anything from us. If they do not write about everything, it is only so as not to confuse us who are like little children that are too young to read adult books. Therefore, Kabbalists reveal this wisdom gradually, more and more, until we attain all the perfect creation in full.
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From the 1st part of the Lesson of the International Kabbalistic Convention “Opening Hearts” 10/01/23, Lesson 4 “Connecting As One Man with One Heart”

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The Legacy of a Spiritual Teacher

115Question: The spiritual teacher is waiting for his student and preparing himself for him. Is this his life?

Answer: Yes, of course! Baal HaSulam writes this! The teacher prepares for the student to come, and he will pass on the method to him.

When I studied with Rabash, it was absolutely clear to me that I had to prepare to teach. I immediately began recording lessons on a tape recorder, drawing diagrams, and writing what Rabash told me when we were walking in the park. I began to systematize these materials and put them in order.

I knew for sure that I would have to take the method from him and pass it on. I had a clear feeling that I existed in order to receive it from him.

I did not know how many years I would stay next to him, because he was a 70-year-old man when I came to him, but I was sure that after all my ordeal in search for a teacher, I should receive the method precisely from him.

I just did not see anyone else, although I knew many people and was looking for a teacher. But Rabash, in spirit, in approach, in source, in character, in desire, and in readiness, was wholly directed toward spirituality. Therefore, I knew that I was receiving this media packet from him and would have to pass it on. He knew it too. Thus, his entire archive, his whole legacy, was passed to me.

After Rabash died, I immediately opened it to everyone. If someone else had it, he might have kept it and not given it away. Or he could give out one portion at a time for personal reasons, in order to feel that he has it, he is special.

No, I immediately gave all his students copies of the originals so that they could use them. After that, I felt calm; Rabash’s works were not lying inside my desk. I fulfilled my duty to my friends. I gave them everything.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Two Souls Opening for Us the Door to the Creator

115It is difficult to overestimate the greatness of Baal HaSulam and Rabash because these are people who help us and do their best to raise us from the lowest degree, that is, from this world, to the spiritual degree of the upper world. Apart from them, there are no other people who would care that we rise from the level of death to the level of life, realize why we live, and thanks to what we exist.

They introduce the Creator to us and teach us how to open the door to Him and come closer to Him. Therefore, Rabash and Baal HaSulam are not even two people, but two upper, special spiritual forces that take care of us, and therefore are closer to us than all other created beings.

Reading the lines written by Rabash in honor of his holy father, Baal HaSulam, we will try to connect to them with all our heart and soul and understand that we are granted a connection with these special souls.

Kabbalists are the system of connection in the common soul of Adam HaRishon, which has already been corrected. A person who corrects himself joins this system and, together with all Kabbalists, builds a network that raises all other souls: picks them up, and helps them rise closer and closer to the Creator.

Besides the fact that Kabbalists have left us their articles, they are still all between us and participate in our work. It is said that Kabbalists have no rest either in this world or in the future world because they help us until the very end of correction. After all, all souls are connected, tied up together, and help each other. Even if we do not feel it, like babies who do not understand who cares for them and how, nonetheless this is how it happens.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/23, “Baal Hasulam Memorial Day”

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