Comment: Once you tried to make an example of one student to others. That student immediately began to justify himself, and you tried to explain to him that he needed to accept it.

My Response: Every person should look for a wide variety of qualities in himself. I need to point at someone, and maybe even jokingly take them aside for people to see. How else can I convey an impression or some kind of tip for a person to himself?

Comment: It often happens that you talk in general about the state of the group, but sometimes you get personal.

My Response: So what? Let everyone learn! Why should we be ashamed of each other?! What can I be embarrassed about?! In our world, I go to the doctor, tell him everything, and he takes tests from me; there is nothing to be ashamed of, not the animal body that I do not associate myself with. I tell him that I have such-and-such pressure, such-and-such blood, and so on.

But when we turn to sensual things, I feel embarrassed when I tell the doctor that I have such-and-such feelings and such-and-such drives. Why?! After all, this is also our natural, inner animal body.

When I talk about the spiritual, here I am no longer “I.” I am working on what I have received from the Creator.

In an animal body, I have nothing to work on; I follow a diet, exercise, go to the doctor, and that’s it. And in my inner spiritual body, I am in a state where I can really work on myself. This should be studied.

And all this work on myself is also not personally mine! It is absolutely the same for everyone! Everyone follows the same path if they try to work on themselves! Everyone has the same failures and the same problems!

Look at how the book Shamati or other articles and messages are written. They are written for everyone! Whether it may be an Indian, Turk or Frenchman, young or old, man or woman, it does not matter at all! There are almost the same paths for everyone. What is there to be ashamed of?!

There is one soul for everyone. Why can’t I talk about it out loud and everywhere, especially when everything depends on it?! We are adults! What can a person be ashamed of?! Today came, tomorrow left. Where is he? What is he? He doesn’t know anything. Look at the stupid things he does while he exists in this world.

So how can I not talk about everything as openly as possible, just to be understood?! Only small children are shy because they identify themselves with their body: “My body is me.” And a truly adult person is not shy.

Kabbalah says: “Stop being shy; go to the one who created you.” That is all. Turn to the one who created you.

You can only be ashamed of one thing, if you had the opportunity to make some kind of correction, to do good in the world, and you didn’t do it. Be ashamed about this! Nothing else depends on you.
[310687]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laitman Offended a Student” 11/17/12

Related Material:
Shame Is A Beneficial Quality
Shame Is a Separate Creation of the Creator
Shame That Opens Up The Heart

Filed under: Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Comment: You say that there are no regional borders in spirituality, that people in different countries go through the same states.

My Response: What does it matter who a person is: man, woman, what race, nationality, etc.? This all applies to physical bodies, whereas in regard to the spiritual world, who are we? What does the outer shell have to do with it? It does not exist at all, except in our animal senses.

Whoever stops at that cannot move forward at all.

Question: Do people in America and in China go through the same internal states?

Answer: Absolutely! Of course! What difference does it make where they are physically?

Question: You once said that those who isolate themselves from others with their pride, thereby bury themselves in a way. Is this their problem?

Answer: Naturally this is their problem. They have to annul themselves a lot more than everyone else.

Question: When you say that we are in such and such a state, are you describing the individual’s state or the state of the group? According to the perception of reality, what you see is whatever is happening inside you?

Answer: Of course I speak based on my condition. Everything is revealed only in relation to the one who attains. The attainer in this case is me, and I express my opinion. Only my opinion is more important than the opinion of others because they comprehend less; that is, they are more dependent, and fall more under their various calculations.
[310619]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Tyrant and Despot” 10/20/12

Related Material:
The Correct Spiritual Path
Children Of Different Nations – One World, One Soul
The Language Of A New Culture

Filed under: Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: During lessons, do you try not to make drawings so that students do not get used to them?

Answer: Yes. If I draw a circle or a line, then at the same time I explain that this is such and such a quality and that the direction of the lines to the right, left, up, and down represent spiritual qualities, and so on.

However, it is very difficult for people to get away from visual perception. They still depict our world and the upper world by the same means of expression, and we have to gradually move away from the images. I make a lot fewer drawings now than I used to.

In the spiritual world where there are a great number of words to introduce a person to a certain state, similar to the spiritual one, about which you want to tell him so that he can feel something, sometimes a drawing is necessary. For example, the Ari drew the “Tree of Life” – “Sefer Ha Eilan” (“Eilan” is a tree, “The Book of a Tree”).

My teacher Rabash did not draw at all. For the last 12 to 13 years of his life, I was by his side, and it seems to me that I probably scared him with my drawings.

At the beginning of studying Kabbalah, I depicted everything in drawings: circles, arrows, drawings, and various relationships. I did not have the opportunity to ask the question correctly, and therefore I wanted him to understand my question from the drawing. Is it in this way or not, and explain why.

I piled so many drawings on him, especially about the world of Infinity—circles one inside the other, overlapping, conjugating—that it scared him. I drew a lot, according to the text, and not just what I wanted. When he saw it and realized that I was asking questions in this way, he said: “That’s it. We will learn in a different way.”

But I did not stop drawing, I just did not show him anything anymore. I drew for myself because the drawing expresses very specific states, and conditionally you can express anything on it, if you clearly understand and accept it.
[310819]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Why Does a Person Draw?” 11/29/12

Related Material:
Why Do People Draw?
Drawing Closer Through A Logarithmic Progression
How To Draw The Light

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: Does the relationship of hierarchies between people change, for example, between you and students?

Answer: It is hard for me to say because, on one hand, I treat everyone as a student. On the other hand, internally, I treat them as friends. Here arises a problem of connecting to me as a teacher on one hand, and the difficulty of expressing myself as a friend on the other hand.

Now, I am gradually trying to do this, but I am afraid that in doing so I will fall in their eyes, and they will disregard me a little like one who is closer to them. This will complicate their path, they will accept less from me, and appreciate less. This is the way man is. I am afraid that by doing this I will not give them enough strength to move forward.

Therefore, I have to shout, push, show an example, and demand. If I am on par with them, then what will be an incentive for them? Will it be just that they value each other and value me above the fact that they see everyone as equal? It is very hard.

That is, I need to show myself as an image that they should respect. This will give them a driving force.
[310815]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Prejudice Against a Friend” 11/24/12

Related Material:
The Greatness of the Teacher
Teacher And Students
The Connection Between Teacher And Student

Filed under: Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: Baal HaSulam descended from the high level of understanding at which he was in order to explain the Kabbalistic methodology in simpler words. How did it happen with him?

Answer: I do not know. It is as if you jump from a chair to the floor, and someone jumps from the stratosphere. This is a completely different technique I have not yet attained at all.

I study Baal HaSulam at my own level, not at the one he is at. His level is unknown to me. I know only what he wrote about himself. If he had not written, I would have said about him: “Yes, he is at a high degree, but I do not know where.” After all, any upper degree feels like infinity relative to the lower one. You cannot measure it in any way with your instruments; therefore, it is infinite, without end, and without boundaries.

Question: Did Rabash tell you about his father?

Answer: No. Both Rabash and Baal HaSulam are unattainable to us. These are the greatest souls! The fact that we are connected with them and receive directly from them is, of course, a great fortune. For this, we must constantly be in a state of gratitude and awe!
[310896]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Most Significant Kabbalist of All Times” 12/17/12

Related Material:
Gratitude for the Path Paved for Us
Guidelines for Achieving Unity – Selected Quotes of Baal HaSulam
Gratitude To Baal HaSulam

Filed under: Baal HaSulam, Dissemination, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: Beginners studying Kabbalah have to go through a huge number of different states. Is there any kind of a safeguard that can somewhat smooth out this process?

Answer: When a person comes to us, he starts poking around the material himself. It does not matter if you talk or not; he does not hear anyway.

He can hear only when he turns on from the inside. But if he does not internally tune in to your wave, then no matter how much you talk, he will not hear. This is a well-known truth for us. So, we are open to everyone.

A person comes, begins to sort things out, fills up, departs, and approaches; he is internally shaken, and he begins to conduct some kind of research and sampling inside himself.

He must get through internal tests. Is it for me or not, why, and what for? He makes comparisons, analysis, and synthesis of all kinds of knowledge and understanding. At the same time, he needs to understand his internal system of the perception of reality, the perception of the material, to what extent he is objective or not, how to be as objective as possible in order to get closer to the truth which is completely outside of us, etc. That is, here a person goes his own way, and we cannot interfere in his inner work, we have no right.

We see how people study: some of them leave, some of them come, tens and hundreds. You have no right to tell anything to anyone; you just want them to understand as correctly as possible where they are. Let them leave later, maybe it really is not for them yet.

In principle, Kabbalah is meant for a very limited number of people in the world. And the rest will come to a common goal en masse, even those who have come and left.

This is not a method that is encouraged by egoism. Therefore, only people who are able to be reborn into a completely different being can remain here. In fact, a Kabbalist is a being of a different world.
[310436]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Overheating of the Brain” 10/6/12

Related Material:
Levels of Shock
You Can’t Hold Anyone Back by Force
It Is Time To Build An Incubator

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: Sometimes you lead the whole group into such states that the students feel it is necessary to make an effort to get out of them. Is this part of your job?

Answer: Of course. This is education! Why else do you need a teacher in Kabbalah? A teacher leads the students through all the most basic steps of entering the upper world, and then they will be able to go further themselves. In our world, we do exactly the same thing with our children; we see them through until they become adults.

Question: During this process, do you experience what you say, or do you just act so that the students feel it?

Answer: No, I experience everything with them. The thing is, I sympathize with them, and I empathize. For me, this empathy is much deeper than theirs. If they do not succeed in something, or something is difficult and incomprehensible for them, I experience it much more than they do. It seems that I am even smiling, but actually I am very worried internally. I am able to survive this because I understand both the entrance and exit from these states and their necessity.

Just like in our world, for example, a child with food poisoning needs to fast. He cries and wants to eat, and his parents suffer from this, but on the other hand, they know they cannot give him food, and they have to wait. Or, for example, they know it is necessary to treat their child’s sore with antiseptic and it will burn, but they do it anyway, and this is not a big deal.
[310543]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Tyrant and Despot” 10/25/12

Related Material:
Problems of Spiritual Growth
Grow Out of “Short Pants”
Teacher And Students

Filed under: Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Comment: You said that you teach students to ask questions correctly because by doing so you pass your matrix to them.

My Response: Otherwise, it is impossible. After all, a student is just an unformed desire; there is nothing else in him except for physical flesh. The teacher helps to form this desire correctly so that it becomes suitable for receiving the light.

A teacher is the one who helps you form or rather shape your vessel.

Question: You received a certain matrix from Rabash. How similar is it to the one you bring to your students? Or are they completely different?

Answer: This matrix is universal, it is one: similarity to the light, the quality of bestowal. Then each student customizes it for himself. I just teach him how to do it, I push him from one side, then from the other side: do it like this, do it like that, and like that.

Even students of an artist or musician still paint or play in their own way. If he is a Master with a capital “M,” he teaches them how to show their talent, peculiarity, and individuality. He does not impose his matrix on them in order to imprint himself in them. First, it is impossible. Second, then this is not a teacher but some kind of corporal in the army.

A teacher is one who helps the student develop individually.

Question: How does the process of individual development of the student happen? What exactly are you doing?

Answer: There is daily systematic work. We see that it takes years.

In the process of spiritual work, students are given some pleasant or unpleasant influences, perhaps a personal example—mostly negative and not positive—so that they see that I am also like that: I get tired, treat someone badly, or something else.

In short, the student must be left with freewill, a place for doubt, a place for reflection: why is it so and not so, is he right or wrong—both regarding the teacher and regarding himself. He must be taught to dare, to doubt, and to make mistakes.
[310145]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Become a Guru?” 9/23/12

Related Material:
Relationship Between Teacher And Student
How Can We Check The Teacher?
Teacher And Students

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Should a teacher remain as a teacher for a student or as a system, as a structure? Should a student feel the greatness of the teacher?

Answer: The greatness of the teacher is necessary in order to absorb the method of development from him and to develop ourselves in order to connect to him because he is above you, he is in front of you, and by your side.

Therefore, in order for him to transmit the upper light to you through himself (and it will certainly pass through the teacher), you must connect to him as he connects to his teacher. In order to do that, you have to annul yourself before him in some way. This is called the greatness of the teacher.

That is, you treat him as your source. This is how the world is arranged, according to hierarchy, everything descends from above downward. The students will also have their own students, and so it will continue, like the tree of life.
[310173]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Become a Guru?” 9/23/12

Related Material:
There Is No Adhesion With The Creator Without Respect For The Teacher And The Group
Passing The Wisdom From A Teacher To A Disciple
Following The Teacher Who Sees The Way

Filed under: Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Do you try to glue the students to each other, to the group, so they do not constantly refer to you to solve some issues?

Answer: In no case do I ever lock the students in on myself, I do not play someone great, smart, or something else in front of them. I play the role of a methodologist in front of them.

I fixate them on each other because they can only solve all problems between them. They must unite, and according to my method, by collectively connecting to me, they absorb the upper light.

Question: But without contact with you, the group does not work no matter how ideal it may be?

Answer: No, that is not true. The teacher may not be in this world; it does not matter. If the disciples gather, they will feel me and the other Kabbalists who are higher than me inside them.

Question: How do we sense it? Suppose the physical greatness of a teacher is one thing.

Answer: We are not talking about physical greatness at all. What does it mean to physically look at a person? Who is he? He is a piece of flesh like everyone else.

A teacher is a conduit of the upper light to his students and that is all.

Question: Let’s say a group comes together and senses the teacher who is no longer in this world. What is the indicator that they feel it correctly?

Answer: If the students unite, then because of their connection they will feel me without guessing on a crystal ball or on something else.
[310214]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to become a guru?” 9/8/12

Related Material:
Who Is Closer To The Teacher?
“Teacher And Student” Is A Connection Between Two Spiritual Levels
Following The Teacher Who Sees The Way

Filed under: Group Work, Spiritual Teacher, Spiritual Work - No Comments →