Real love has nothing to do with sex or gender, but in order to come to it, we need serious preparation.

After all, we need to learn to open our hearts, feel the heart of another person, and rise above our own interests in order to enter the desire of our friend, whatever that desire may be.

Here it does not matter who that other person is, whether a man or a woman. I need to rise above my egoism, which yearns to enjoy the entire world, and instead of this, I prefer to provide the entire world with enjoyment.

If this is what love is, then a question arises: Does love even exist at all in our world? It does not! Love exists only in the upper world, to which we ascend above our egoistic calculations and begin to fulfill another and enjoy each others’ joy.

Am I capable of enjoying the fact that I am fulfilling eight billion people? It is written, “love another as thyself.” That is, I need to love others more than myself, and in the same way that I currently love myself more than others. This is why we require a force that is higher than our nature that is capable of correcting our nature and can help us attain true love. 

Nature created me and instilled in me an egoistic desire to love myself. Now I am demanding my own correction from this nature, the Creator. I want to correct myself in such a way so as to love another without any personal interest, independently from whether I feel good or bad from it, and to be above it.

Since I am currently a complete egoist, I want others to treat me with this kind of love and to love me the way that I am, with all my flaws and egoism. Therefore, I should love others with such love without any conditions.

Reply: But I do not want to!

My Comment: This is why you need correction. You will discover in your friend the most unpleasant properties and actions with respect to you and your loved ones, and you will love him nevertheless. True love requires complete correction and covers all crimes.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/30/15

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Midrash Raba,”BeShalach“: The spies reached the region of Hebron where the cave of Machpelah is found, but they were afraid to go there and pray, since it was common knowledge that giants lived there. Only Caleb ignored the danger and decided to visit the holy place where our forefathers are buried because he thought to himself: How can I not be involved in conspiring with the spies? Moses’ prayers protect Joshua, while I need to ask the Creator for help. This is the reason that he went into the cave to pray. The Shechina also entered the cave with him in order to let the forefathers know that the time has come for their descendants to conquer the land. Caleb fell on the ground next to the graves of the forefathers and prayed for their mercy and for being saved from conspiring with the spies.

A person is always overcome by weakness and fear of the growing ego inside him, and so he asks for powers in order to resist it. Then the Pharaoh in him begins to awaken more strongly and therefore the spies are right when they are afraid and say that they don’t have to power to stand against it. Their only sin is that they don’t understand, don’t feel, don’t perceive, and don’t believe that they can gain power to overcome their internal interruptions from above.

Question: What kind of power does the “cave of Machpelah” give Caleb who enters it?

Answer: The word “Machpelah” stems from the Hebrew word “Kaful” (double). There is a connection between Malchut and Bina in this cave. This is the reason that all our forefathers are buried there, since they have fully corrected their souls. They buried themselves egoistically by ascending to the altruistic level. A cave is a very special, closed place in the earth. The word “earth” in Hebrew (eretz) stems from the word “Ratzon” (desire), which means all of person’s desires are in a state where the attributes to receive and to bestow totally complement one another. Such souls reach the end of correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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Question: Why has so much hatred been revealed in the world lately?

Answer: It is because our egoism is developing very intensely, exponentially, and lately it is rising on an unprecedented sharp, upward curve. Every moment is radically different in its nature from its predecessor, and the acceleration and depth of the discovery of egoism is the main characteristic of nature.

So, it is not surprising that egoism will continue to be discovered more deeply, clearly, and acutely. People will shamelessly begin to demand what is theirs, knowing precisely what they want. And even though they understand that they will not succeed in attaining anything, with all their might they will insist upon what is theirs. The ego will force a person to be rigid and unreasonable, even though everyone will begin to convince himself of its inappropriate demands. And that is how it will be for each one of us.

This is being expressed today, specifically because in the present stage of development, humanity has reached the end of the realization of its earth’s history. We need to rise to the next level of existence where we will feel ourselves, not as physical bodies living in an environment of the substance of the still, vegetative, and animate levels, which is supposedly our home, but in the form of forces that are not limited by physical bodies. So now we need to depart from our beastly state.

And in order to obligate us to begin to be engaged with development outside of our bodies, to forget them, and to stop feeling them, the egoism of our bodies, of our lives, of our consciousness is being revealed. It will push us forward towards a situation where our egoistic drives will be perceived by us as disgusting, an abomination, and this is not because we will become idealists, but because we feel how much our evil nature directs us. In other words, we won’t begin to run away from egoism, but will simply be unable to be at peace with it because we will see how from morning to evening it gives us commands, spurs us on, pushes us forward, throws us on the ground, and drags us up.

This means that it forces us to exist in an absolutely useless form in which we invest energy that brings us only suffering, despair, and disappointment. Nature, or more precisely its program, is leading us to this, according to which we need to ascend spiritually precisely at a time of full disappointment in the egoistic system of management, and we must demand a new and different system of management. But it will be discovered in us through that same ego.

Therefore, the ego is called a “helpmate against him” (Genesis 2:18). It is said specifically about Pharaoh, who symbolizes the ego, that he brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator through his coarse and cruel actions. The present terrible, egoistic opposition of all people, nations, and countries, the absolute disappointment in everything, the deterioration of the foundation of our world and the economy, which has guided the world for thousands of years, indicates that the ego has exhausted itself on all levels.

Presently, hatred will reach its limit, but simultaneously it will bring powerlessness and disappointment. Why should I kill, burn, and annihilate someone? There was a time during the Crusades, that this seemed like the solution to the problem, whereas today, it doesn’t! So it is necessary to look at the whole process from the point of view of the benefit that is received from all stages of development.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 8/5/15

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Midrash Raba, “BeShalach”: The spies went in the direction of Eshkol Stream, because the juice flowed like streams from the vine downwards in those areas. When they arrived there Caleb reminded them the instructions Moses gave them: to bring the juicy sweet fruits of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). The spies disregarded his words, because they didn’t wish to show how fruitful the land was. Then Caleb threatened them: if you don’t take the fruits I will pull out my sword and we will see who will remain alive! Knowing what a hero Caleb was and his great power, the spies obeyed him, but they chose fruits that were monstrous in size, in order to tell the people later that a land that bears such unusual fruits is suspicious and strange and ordinary people cannot survive in it.

The fruits that you receive when you begin to work with the ego with the intention of in order to bestow are the Light of Hochma. While the Light of Hassadim is Nefesh and Ruach, here Neshama and Chaya and Yechida are also added. This means that these are great Lights in attaining all the elements of the creation, of the whole world, from the beginning to its end, attaining the Creator, and all His attributes as the upper force, adhesion with Him above the level of life and death, ascending to the level of the “head of the world of Atzilut.”

Not only is it impossible to resist the temptation of such pleasures, the generation of the desert, who lived on manna cannot understand what they need this for. If the Creator hadn’t instructed them to fulfill these actions, they would have remained in the desert because the attribute of Bina is so calming and feels like water because you don’t want anything else. You are happy with what you have. You only need manna in order to hold on and you don’t even need to take any special attributes or flavors from it. You are simply happy with little, not delving into anything, because you have a slight connection with the Creator, His slight illumination.

This state takes over and dominates you and doesn’t let go. It is very hard to overcome it and to begin to work with the ego again, with Pharaoh, with the problems, in order to transform them and thus attain the level of the land of Israel. It is terribly difficult!

This is the reason that the weekly section of the Torah about the spies is very dramatic. Imagine a man in his prime, who has a family, kids, and a normal life, when everything is fine and he is well off and happy with life and has no other needs and everything is simply wonderful. The need to leave the desert and go to the land of Israel is faith above reason that is in contrast to his state. The Light of Bina fills him to such an extent that it totally satisfies him and he doesn’t want anything else.

He must make extraordinary efforts and raise the importance of the Creator in his eyes as He instructs him to reawaken the ego inside him in order to rise above this level. What is more, He instructs him to do so despite his desire and his understanding, because it seems like a contradiction to the Creator.

A person finds himself in this unclear oppositeness, which he cannot stand. The only thing he can do is to advance with his eyes closed and this is what happened to the spies. They are in a state of Hafetz Hesed. They don’t want anything for themselves. Only Caleb constantly awakens them because he is more closely connected to the Creator and understands that this is the Creator’s mission, while their whole essence rebels against it.

You have to crush yourself internally in order to fulfill the Creator’s instructions.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/2/15

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Question: What must happen to create a new Kli (vessel) in a person above his present desires?

Answer: For this, first of all, there is a need for support that can be obtained thanks to the group, the teacher, the study, and dissemination.

Submission is the first and principle act regarding the Creator upon which, afterward, all the rest is built. After all, our desire is egoistic, so the first action must be the submission of the ego. Someone who is ready for this tries to implement what the group needs and what the teacher asks, to be stimulated by the learning, and to invest himself in dissemination.

The main work here is clarification through the emotion and intellect. After all, it could be that a person carries out many physical actions, yet doesn’t make any calculations about them, or the opposite, all day he makes various calculations, yet doesn’t realize anything. These calculations aren’t worth anything. This is only philosophy.

Everything begins from submission because without the submission of the ego and the intellect that serves it, it is impossible to begin to work above it. I must pull out my desire to receive, study it, and subdue it. Submission is the first activity on the way to adhesion. After all, with the desire that is in me now, I will not be able to get closer to the Creator in any way.

So, I bend it, criticize it, and clarify with which part it is possible to work and with which part it is not possible. I don’t have anything except a desire to receive, so I begin to learn how it is possible to change it, in which directions. For example, I approach the friends even though I don’t feel anything at all, but I understand that I must do this.

Thanks to this, by implementing changes in my previous state and bringing myself forward a bit, I correct my attitude. I sacrificed myself. I helped the friends. I carried out the advice of the teacher. I passed from the F₁ state to the F₂ state. Even though these two states are within my ego, there is a difference between them, a delta due to my change. I can learn from the example of the change that I made and the results that were received by using this as the first brick in building my nullification of the self.

I already have something in my hands. The state that I have attained is better than the previous state, and so I call it a “pleasant and kind bride” (Talmud Babyli, Ketubot 16b). I received a higher and more beautiful Kli, and so Beit Hillel (the school of Hillel) doesn’t force me to lie. It only shows me that it is up to me to attain this state.

Beit Shammai speaks about the present situation, whereas Beit Hillel speaks about a desired state, but one that will happen eventually. When I attain it, reach it, then, state F₂ becomes the main state for me. This state needs further work so that the F₂ state of Beit Hillel will become realistic. It is the point of view of Beit Shammai from which I clarify the desired state F₃ of Beit Hillel. That is how I continue and advance further.

However, I first use the delta between the states of F₁ and F₂ as the unit of measure: a millimeter, a centimeter, and a gram of correction. I use it as a model, as a standard, a scale of measurement, and armed with this, I can advance.

Question: What must be done to advance from state F₁ to state F₂?

Answer: It is necessary to see the two states from the point of view of Beit Shammai and from the point of view of Beit Hillel, “a beautiful bride as she is” and simultaneously “a pleasant and kind bride.” However, a person himself has no chance of seeing state F_2; for this purpose, he is given a teacher and the books that he must listen to. He must accept what is said by the teacher as truth, and the teacher says, “There is none else besides Him,” “the Good who does good.”

If he sees the bride only as unattractive as she is, then it is necessary to continue to work in a group, study, and disseminate. Respecting the teacher means carrying out what he advises regarding your advancement. This means carrying out activities and watching for a response of the Light, similar to a bride who must prepare herself, and only then will the groom come. The right actions will necessarily cause a response from the Upper Light.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/14

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Question: Why is it said that it was refusal and rejection that later become a new receptive Kli?

Answer: I have nothing other than an appetite, hunger, a feeling of lack or fulfillment. This is our essence. This is the unique characteristic that I can use. Also within me is that point from Bina, which helps me change my attitude towards the desire to receive and the feeling in it, the feeling of lack or the feeling of fulfillment. The desire to receive with the feeling of lack or fulfillment is Malchut. The point from which I can observe and examine it is the point of Bina. Because Malchut is an offspring of Bina; this ability exists within it.

When I use the point of Bina and identify with it, I can see how Malchut suffers or enjoys fulfillment or the lack of fulfillment. I now want to take Malchut and change it so that it will be like Keter. To do this I must bestow, like Keter. So I summon all of the Light that there is in my Malchut, but I don’t enjoy feeling this within me but through passing it through me to others. In this way I will be like Keter, like the guest who makes himself like the host.

I enjoy the Light that I receive—not the Light itself, but transmitting it to others. If I were simply to return the Light to the Host, I would not give Him contentment. I must enjoy the Light within my Kelim by giving pleasure to the Host, and this is the enjoyment that I transmit back to the Host.

And here we can already see what the NRNHY is. I simply receive Light, and to the degree that within me I am ready to feel the pleasure that I am giving to the Host, it receives the form that is called Ohr HaNefesh, Ohr HaRuach, Ohr HaNeshama, Ohr HaHaya, and Ohr HaYechida. This depends on how much I allow myself to enjoy it and whether I can transmit this to the Host and feel how much He enjoys the entire extraction that I am prepared to bring out from this enjoyment, and how we connect together in the same enjoyment. The Light is shared between us; otherwise we cannot connect. Here my desire and His desire are connected into one. All of this is done using the receptive Kelim, yet not in their usual form, but above them, meaning, above their usual significance and usage.

Question: How do I know that the Creator has pleasure?

Answer: For this you need to feel Him. So you demand revelation. You demand revelation not to enjoy it, but only to know if you are giving Him pleasure. This is the right request. This is exactly what we must demand in order to work.

Question: In the physical world, how must I feel pleasure from the Light within my desire?

Answer: There is no this world or next world; they differ only in the different attitude to pleasure, where it is felt. If you enjoy giving pleasure to others, this is called “the spiritual world.” If you cannot enjoy transferring it to someone else, it means that you don’t feel him as yourself, so you are still found in the material world. In your eyes, the system is still not connected.

Question: What force can keep me on the way because it is impossible to exist without any pleasure?

Answer: Help from heaven—only the Creator can help. It is good when a person depends on the Light that Reforms. This is called “help from heaven.” It is written that after death when a person reaches the heavenly court, he is asked: “Were you engaged in Torah? Did you expect salvation?” “Engaged in Torah” means, did you attract the Light that Reforms and “you shall love your friend as yourself” meaning, did you realize the great general rule of the Torah?

When you were involved with this, did you expect salvation, that the Light that Reforms would come to you and give you the power of bestowal and love of others and through that the love of the Creator? A person is only asked about this.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: I am concerned about the situation in China. What can be done to transform advancement through suffering to advancement through the way of Light?

Answer: If a strong national government still existed in China, in their place, to save China I would send the entire population to a mandatory course on the subject of Integral Education. By this means it would be possible to attract a very great Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). And it makes no difference how much they would understand. There is no need to understand; rather, the need is to simply carry it out, just as everyone once read the writings and quotations of Mao Tse-tung from the Little Red Book; so now everyone would also be involved in Integral Education as a wonderful tool.

In my opinion this method is close to them and they are ready to do it. This is imperative; there is no other solution, and otherwise we will be approaching some extremely tragic events. What is to be done with hundreds of millions of people who are left without work, income, and are hungry for a slice of bread? What will they do in cities? Also returning them to villages is no longer possible. This is a problem of the whole world.

In fact, as of today, the world just about doesn’t need China. This period ended rapidly; it lasted around twenty years. There was rapid prosperity, and that was it; there is no longer a need for it. The whole world is in a crisis, nobody needs to buy anything. The United States is not interested in the continued prosperity of China because it must provide work for its citizens. And besides that, Chinese production is not as cheap as it was before.

There are a multitude of reasons, but we don’t understand them and think that it might be possible to correct something with the help of various economic levers, decreasing or increasing interest rates. But nothing will help. In this manner it is possible only to pass the time. We are approaching world war, but in the meantime we hope to postpone it a bit.

It is impossible to extinguish the negative baggage that humanity is accumulating more and more. There is no solution to any of these questions. After all, masses of people, weapons, hatred and strife between everyone are connected to this; all of these have become an insolvable problem. If there will be local flare-up, the fire will spread all over the world. As of today the state is deteriorating rapidly not just towards local flare-ups between individual nations, but in the formation of two very large blocs that are against each other.

The Creator expects our correction. Forces are revealed and shaped according to the lack of work on our part. Here the laws of nature are active. If we don’t open the crater of the volcano to release a little of the pressure that is gathering in it, then it will heat up until it will ultimately erupt.

It is now impossible to release the pressure through specific actions in one place or another in the world, as had been done until now. The world requires correction, connection. But it is in a state that is very far from connection, nobody wants to hear about this. All the organizations that were once established for the sake of connection, as in the example of UNESCO, the United Nations. and major international organizations, with time have become political forces. No organization has remained that will work for the benefit of building connections between people.

We have reached the final point of clarification, and understand that it is impossible to build something with the help of an “egoistic person.” Now the question is will people want to accept Integral Education? For if this will not be, it is frightening to think what will happen to the people of Israel. The whole world will pounce on us. This is a very serious problem towards which one cannot turn a blind eye.

So going out to disseminate is a question of survival for us. Our survival depends on our going out to disseminate and the degree of our success in it. The high spiritual method is becoming something very practical in life. Spirituality, dissemination, and preventing the threat of world war are all connected. Suddenly, in a moment, the world can be transformed, so we must relate to this with great seriousness.
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From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can we unite if the breach between the different streams and sectors seems impossible to bridge?

Answer: That’s the way it should be at the end of the exile. It doesn’t surprise me. We have reached this state as a result of ages of evolution. The modern world is the advanced level of the evolution of our ego. It is good because the ego is revealed in its clear and specific form on this level. The only thing missing is the recognition of evil: we have to understand that we feel bad precisely because our ego shows us that it is the source of all evil.

We still lack this recognition, which means that we shouldn’t just suffer because we feel bad, but rather we need to discover the reason for this evil. At the moment we don’t associate the split between us with a military escalation somewhere in the world, with demonstrations, with problems that come up all the time, and with the rising cost of living. We don’t associate all that with our ego, and therefore we still lack the recognition of evil and simply feel bad.

We have to work on that and to explain that it is actually the lack of connection between us that is the source of every form of evil and that the correction is also lies in the same cause—the renewal of the connection between us.

Humanity itself will never be able to discover this dependency and that the lack of connection between people has a destructive effect on nature and on the ecology. We can convince people that the separation has a bad influence on society and leads to breaches between religious and non religious sectors, between the rich and the poor, between different streams; it also leads to problems in the educations system—but all this belongs to the human level. When we speak about the effect on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature it becomes hard to explain that.

People have to undergo terrible afflictions before they can see the connection between these things. Therefore, it is our obligation to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, and Baal HaSulam says that the time for that has come.

Question: Can we convince people by setting a personal example for them, by showing them the good outcomes that the study of Kabbalah can lead to?

Answer: I don’t think it will help even if we run around and demonstrate beautiful examples of connection between people. Our main work is to use our intention. We have to perform actions, but most of all we have to focus on our intention and not look for solutions other than integral education.

I don’t think we will be able to make any progress through our actions. Actions are important, but they take place on the account of the Upper Light that operates according to our intention. The action itself on which the intention is based is not so important. We simply have to use all the options that open up from above.

We are nearing the right intention all the time—this is all our work. Consequently, we draw the Light and we don’t need anything else except the Light. I am not armed with a gun or a spear, but only with the intention that I have to use in order to draw the Light.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why did Kabbalists prevent the spread of ordinary science among the Israeli nation?

Answer: Kabbalists did not prevent the spread of science, it simply developed to the extent that it was necessary. After all, before the destruction of the Temple the whole nation engaged in spiritual attainment in absolute devotion. Why should they have studied insects in the jungle or electricity?

External science explores how we should work with different expressions of the Light in this world on the lowest level. It is useless if I can work directly with the Creator, with the same phenomena on a higher level. There I am actually incorporated in the actions and work with the phenomenon, and that is a huge difference.

Compared to this sublime work, external science is simply a game in a kids’ sandbox. This is the reason that the nation of Israel did not engage in science beyond what was necessary for building or in order to satisfy the needs of the body. What is the point in dealing with it any more than that?

There were people who knew how to process leather, how to prepare food, and how to build houses, how to do anything that was a basic necessity, but not more than that: for a living, for the family, for the next generation. It was impossible to live without it and so they had to provide those needs.

But money, respect, and knowledge are human desires that lead to a breach in society and were therefore kept on a minimal level. It was only after the Israeli nation was exiled that they gradually began to descend lower and lower.

They couldn’t engage in anything else when they were in exile and so they engaged in anything that was possible, especially in commerce and in developing the banking system since they could engage in that everywhere and it gave them a sense of security. They could secure their future this way.

Thanks to the fact that the Jews dispersed all over Europe and the Middle East, they could establish a network similar to the modern integral network in commerce, industry and finance. They began to build it more than 2000 years ago. If a Jew from Spain reached Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, or the countries in northern Europe he could always find Jews there with whom he had a common language; he could find a place to live, to understand their lives and they could understand him.

This was not the case among other nations. There were only small villages in Europe which were so far away from one another. On the other hand, it was easy for the Jews to build such systems because they felt that they belonged to one nation, to one Creator; they studied from the same books and read the same prayers. Moreover, they never knew what the future would bring. If you are a person that can be counted on because you fear the Creator, I can leave a sum of money that I have saved for times of trouble. If something should happen, I can always come to you and you will give me back what is mine.

This is how the systems of commerce and industry developed. There was no need for external sciences because they had their own system. Books were transferred from place to place. It was a very strong network. This is actually how humanity began to wake up and advance from the age of barbarism.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Why do we understand the world in which we are living? It is because we feel it. If we started to feel it in a different way, it would be understood as something else felt inside ourselves.

In other words, the feeling must be prior to understanding. It is impossible to understand the reality we don’t feel. This doesn’t happen. Sometimes, it is possible to understand something in our world according to our imagination because we have models of feeling particular objects inside, and it is possible to imagine them in some form. But this is a problem.

Are we ready to imagine, let’s say, the taste of grapes with benzene? Which is to say, as long as we haven’t tangibly experienced something, Kelim (vessels) are not created in us since Kelim are desires, feelings, and before this, our brain has nothing to work with.

So, our problem with the Creator is that He is the only force, and we have the opportunity in our world to feel ourselves separate from Him, and this is the greatest thing that He ever did. He created something as if it exists outside of Him (existence from absence), and specifically from this nonexistence it is possible to begin to attain the Creator.

But it is impossible to understand Him with the intellect because He is characteristics, manners, and activities that are completely incomprehensible to us. Levels of approaching the Creator are according to the degree of equivalence with Him. The biggest problem of our getting closer is that with every step of our approach to the Creator, we must understand more and more—feel, know, and grasp inside of us—that all of our movements within our desires, thoughts, drives and plans, whatever they may be when we direct ourselves directly toward Him, and even any opposing activities when we want to twist and lie to ourselves, in all of this the Creator precedes us.

It makes no difference how we perceive ourselves, in whatever desires, thoughts or actions, we always discover Him first and, after that, ourselves. And where am I? It becomes clear that the “self” of each one of us is specifically in understanding the fact that the Creator is everywhere and one must adhere with Him at this point. So, the self gradually, in parts, in some point, will adhere with the Creator until reaching full equivalence with Him. This form is called Adam (Man).

However, for us, it is difficult to imagine this because everything must happen within our desires, and this will be realized only when we begin to move within our inner analysis toward the discovery of the Creator in everything inside of us and around us, according to the principle of “There is none else besides Him.”

What I am thinking now, this is His thought. Is my reaction to this thought also my reaction or His reaction? In what way can our thoughts be equivalent? In what way can I see the difference between Him and me? If I don’t agree with the thought that is aroused in me, it means that this disagreement comes from Him, and here it begins to become clear where my form still is not like His.

This is a very interesting analysis. In the beginning, it is tiresome. After that, it begins to be interesting. After all, this is a constant inner game that, in fact, adds to our life and gives it inner meaning, inner energy, a source of movement. If a person begins to search for the Creator in all of his drives, feelings and thoughts—even in movements that are unconscious and instinctive reactions—it means that he is searching for the way in which he is different from the Creator.

In the still, vegetative, and animate nature, the Creator manifests instinctively. Everything happens there according to particular laws. There are no problems, and all of the laws of nature are carried out precisely.

So we cannot have any complaints against animals, not can there be any complaints of animals against each other. Everything is in a particular balance: who eats whom and who exists at the expense of whom. Everything is defined from the start. Everything must exist this way. There is a precise and instinctive transmission of nature here. The Creator acts in them naturally and is not expressed in any form.

It is the same thing in regard to people in whom the Creator does not want to be revealed. He works instinctively. We see that all of the great politicians, economists, and in part also the scientists (there are those who already are conscious of their difference), not to mention the common people, all of them exist instinctively. The Creator is not revealed in regard to them.

In what way is He revealed to us? First, He compels us to search for the reason for our existence—meaning, to begin searching for Him—and brings us to a feeling as to where and in what way we are beginning to grow above our animate level. If I am involved in this now, I am trying to understand in what place in me, in my thoughts and feelings, I can grasp the Creator, where He constantly challenges me, manages me from within. This thought is related to the level of Adam. I want to rise above instinctive behavior and consciously recognize the management of the Creator, conscious from my point of view. This is precisely the way we must go.

Here, we gradually begin to detach from Him and connect with Him consciously, which is to say that previously I was under the instinctive management of the Creator: Everything that I did, all of my previous life specifically had to be like that. Everything is attributed to Him!

From this moment on, I want to feel His activity in all of my feelings, my desires, in whatever happens inside of me and, after that, decide if I agree with this action, how I can adhere with Him, but consciously.

In the beginning, I must feel that He—this is He, and I—this is I, and that He is doing something within me. Do I agree with His desires and thoughts with heart and mind, to what He is doing with me? If not, I must connect with Him and adhere to Him above my desire and thoughts. This is very great work. Here, I begin to separate myself from the Creator (this is called “analysis of the state”) and after that, make a correction, connecting myself to Him (this is called “correction and adhesion”).

The distance between Him and me is determined by my ego that I am beginning to discover within me, and the more that I work on myself, the more my ego grows from minus to an immense plus or from instinctive behavior to an awareness that He is the one who is acting this way, but I still agree with Him and move back toward Him. This proceeds conically, and we must connect these two systems within the middle line.

Through the understanding that without the ego we could not differentiate ourselves from Him, become an independent, created being, we give great contentment to the Creator. Only then do we begin to understand what existence from absence is, and from there we connect ourselves to “existence from existence.”
[129647]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/14

Related Material:
Seeing The Uniqueness Of The Creator
The Closed Door As An Excuse To Enter
What Do You Do When The Creator Is Everywhere?

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