Integral Education Convention, Workshop 1: What is mutual guarantee? Why is mutual guarantee the means for attaining the Creator, for the revelation of the Creator, for ascending to Him? Why is this the only way on all the 125 levels by which our ego develops? Our ego ascends and we ascend above it by the mutual guarantee between us.

The ego keeps ascending and we ascend even higher above it by the mutual guarantee between us. This means that there is no other means, no other state that we have to attain except for mutual guarantee.

It is the mutual guarantee between us that includes all the conditions according to which we reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. Mutual guarantee leads us to equivalence of form with Him, and then He is revealed.

When we become detached from ourselves and reach the feeling of “us,” of mutual guarantee, we find ourselves in a totally different volume, on a different level, in a different dimension. There is nothing personal anymore, and the feeling of the body and this world disappear. It is as if I move to a new empty space in which there is only my concern for the group, and there I meet the desires and the aspirations of my friends.

Thus we reach true mutual guarantee: a feeling of the common dome above us, the feeling of a new space in which we discover everyone’s aspirations that are focused on the group, on unity, on what is between us. Then, if this mutual guarantee is formed correctly, a need to turn to the upper force, to be in contact with it, awakens in it. It is in the mutual guarantee that we discover the desire to rise to this force and to allow it to delight us and to be in contact with us.

This happens naturally according to the progression downward. Everything is born from the top down, and it is in the same order that the movement from the bottom up is evoked in us. The Reshimot (informational genes) that are on each and every level are gradually revealed and we suddenly feel such a big space that we have to add our aspiration for mutuality with the upper force.

So the right balance, the right relations between us, on the level of mutual guarantee when we ascend above our ego, generate the desire for the upper force in us: to delight it, to allow it to be revealed in us, to be connected to it. When we are connected, the mutual guarantee between us and this force are formed.

But it is a gradual process. We either attain a certain level of mutual guarantee or not: we may have stalled, we may have left it, perhaps one of us has fallen and we don’t feel it. On the whole, the moment we reach this state, or not, as we stall in fulfilling the mutual guarantee since something interrupts us, a new level of ego, which is lower than the one we are on, immediately rises in us.

But we have to ascend according to the descent. We fall again and rise once more. The level of the ego that is revealed makes us feel the need to tighten the mutual guarantee between us. We have probably not been sensitive enough in fulfilling it, or we may have not fulfilled it completely. Perhaps we have fulfilled it completely, which means that we have to ascend even higher.

The ascent takes place in two ways:

• By the path of suffering when the additional ego is revealed before we have actually fulfilled the mutual guarantee between us because we have stalled, have stopped fulfilling it, or for any other reason.
• By the path of I shall hasten it, when we have fulfilled the mutual guarantee between us and have to ascend to the next level according to our attainment.

But in any case, the new level of ego that is revealed in us, the new egoistic desires, the repulsion, the weakness, and the descents are all it order to spur us and to raise us to a higher level.

How do we operate in a state of descent by using the mutual guarantee between us? How does the state of mutual guarantee help us fulfill the descent correctly?

If we have signed an agreement of mutual guarantee, have risen above the ego, if we have begun to feel even for a short while that we are connected on a higher level, above our world, feeling awe and aspiring forward, and suddenly one of our friends falls, we must understand that it isn’t just he that fell, but we have received a sign that we have to start this new ascent together with him.

In other words, the friend himself isn’t the issue, but the fact is that a new egoistic desire has awoken in the mutual guarantee between us and it helps us rise even higher.

What should we do if one of us falls? We have to descend to him, to his level, speak to him in his language as if we agree with him. We have to keep the level between us and at the same time descend to him and connect to him. After all, when we connect to him, we can raise him.

Then, when we surpass the level we were on, we can continue to ascend. Thanks to our descent to the friend, we can ascend even higher than the state we were on before we descended to him. This means that we have to regard any descent of a friend as an opportunity given to us from Above to a new ascent to mutual guarantee.

When we reach such a state above us, connect to it, ascending and descending together, breathing together, we build a Masach (screen). We are like a piston that ascends and descends as we pump more and more and more desire from our egoistic attributes to our altruistic attributes.

This is how we work. When a friend falls, we ascend and descend with him. The same thing happens when the whole group goes through a similar state. This is our continuous action.

If we manage to hold on to the intention to delight the Creator by our connection, like good children in relation to their mother, a state in which we connect and work together is called a raspberry ball, and perhaps we can also call it a “float.”

We have to constantly be in this state. Constantly! To float forward, backward, no matter where we move; we have to constantly be connected; we have to fall and to rise together. What is more, we must constantly be with the Creator both in our lowest state and in our highest state.

On the whole, this is the method. Everything else are individual cases of this method. The moment we connect and find the connection with the Creator at least to some extent, the moment we ascend and descend together, is the basis for everything.

So what does it mean to float above the water? How can we be on this float no matter which ways we are moving? This float is called Noah’s Ark. It is where the spiritual ascent begins. The moment you create this, the rest will follow.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/02/14, Workshop 1

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In Preparation for the Integral Convention

The Importance of Our Mission to the World

1. All of humanity, all of nature, after the shattering is heading toward unity. And we are the ones who are studying the science of unity, the wisdom about how to attract other alternative power to help us to hasten the unity.

All of Integral Education amounts to this, teaching a person to connect with others as quickly as possible. Until now there was no need for this method, and now it is beginning to be in demand.

We are like a wick, all of humanity below us is like oil, and above is the Light of Infinity.

Accordingly, if we make ourselves into a conduit, everything will be okay. It is yet to be revealed to us that if we don’t connect the higher, the middle, and the lower in three lines, we cannot act.

We need connection with the upper force so that it will pass through us to others, to those who are passing through development for the purpose of raising the lowest to the discovery of the highest. And that is how we work; we are going around in this closed circle all the time: from below the desire is renewed, and from above the Light arrives.

2. In work with those who are further down it is important to make sure that feeling precedes intellect. Theoretically it is impossible to teach the wisdom of unity to the broader public; it is impossible to impart wisdom to people before the feeling. They will flee.

We ourselves are ready to tolerate this wisdom because we have a desire, a point in the heart. Without this desire we would also flee.

It is necessary to employ and activate the participants, to provide them with impressions, to gather them for workshops, to develop and expand their perception, understanding, and feeling to awaken them to clarification so that they will be expanded within and will discover a space within them that will begin to be filled with all kinds of details: “group,” “I,” and so on.

When we gather participants to discuss questions in a workshop, they gradually format themselves according to the integral model of the world and make decisions integrally, through nullification of the self, through the raspberry ball. They construct a general shared mini-reality in a group where there is a central point and Kelim, desires, want to connect in self-nullification, in reciprocity, in mutual guarantee (Arvut), in order to discover the Creator. In this group of ten there exists a model of all of reality.
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Preparation for the Integral Convention, Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 7

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From the book Light and Sun by Rav Kook: The main thing in a gathering is general unity, when everyone asks one thing: to find the Creator.

If we unite for the sake of one goal: to find the Creator who is revealed inside our unity, this is the correct connection. This is the main thing we need to achieve. We are already on the way to this, having done a variety of actions and preparations. Today’s meeting is just preparation.

We are constantly moving closer to this state, and it depends on us how we can reduce this path and reach the first minimum connection in which the Creator will be revealed on the degree of Nefesh de Nefesh de Nefesh. This is exactly what we need, and it will have our first spiritual degree.

There are 125 degrees in total, and the first degree of Nefesh de Nefesh de Nefesh corresponds to the Malchut of the world of Assiya. We want to rise to it and inside it to reveal the Creator as one vessel filled with one Light. One vessel is all our desires connected together. And one Light is the Creator, the Light of the world of Infinity that fills the entire universe, but revealed only to the extent of our degree of Nefesh de Nefesh de Nefesh. However, it already means our entry on the spiritual ladder.

Therefore, “the main thing in a gathering is general unity, when everyone asks one thing: to find the Creator.” We want to connect strongly enough and qualitatively so that through our unity, that is, self-nullification and inclusion into each other, we achieve power and form that allows us to reveal the Upper Light according to the equivalence of our properties. Then, inside the vessel that has revealed the Creator, we will be able to understand the Upper Light, to feel it.
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From a Preparation lesson for the Arava convention, 1/30/14

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When I feel that I lack the right desire, I need to ask for it. This is called the “prayer before prayer”: I pray in order to awaken a request in me for the Creator, the right desire that I don’t have at the moment.

Now on the contrary, I would rather eat and take a nap, but I ask to be awakened; I want to feel the emptiness of my current thoughts and above them awaken to bestowal, to love, and to feel fulfillment from this. The request itself, the turning towards the Creator, is my “nourishment,” filling me with vitality. You see, in this way I am linked to the Creator, and I don’t need anything more. So how could I sleep now?

Question: But if I don’t want to sleep anymore, so haven’t I nullified this desire within me, and not gone above it?

Answer: Now I am in need of other fulfillment. I love the other and want to bestow to him. My previous desire doesn’t disappear; it burns within me as before, but at this moment I am involved with bestowal.

There is nothing I can do about it; in spirituality I always have two desires, two feelings. On the one hand I feel my inner emptiness that I don’t want to fill as usual, and on the other hand, I want to stay above it with a desire to bestow. I must have this emptiness as my “body,” which is what I have restrained. Without it, I would not be able to advance.

The question is how is it possible to feel these two desires simultaneously? The Tzimtzum (restriction) was designed for this: I take control over the desire, in spite of its power and above it, build a Masach with an intention to bestow and a burning aspiration for it.

This is the duality that is discovered in spirituality, and we must get used to it. One of its most prominent examples is told in the Torah: (Genesis 21:12) in Isaac shall your seed be called, the Creator says to Abraham; and after that He ordered him to sacrifice Isaac in the land of Moriah, (Genesis 22:2) and offer him there for a burnt-offering. How do we integrate these two contradictory stipulations?

Baal HaSulam writes in Letter 51: a person cannot scrutinize the body and the soul as two subjects. Rather, he is composed by the Creator as one, meaning as one subject, and therefore spiritual perception is difficult for him, really like two opposites that are impossible to clothe in one subject. And in spite of it all, we must internalize this principle, to comprehend it somewhat, otherwise we simply will not survive.

And if it’s bad for me today, if I am tired of my futile efforts, lose direction and prefer to take a nap, if emptiness dominates me, the despair, the powerlessness, and life begins to surprise me with unpleasant surprises, on the one hand I must rise above the problems that are sent to me and see them not as obstacles but as salvation. You see, without them I would not feel a need for the Creator, for the help of the Creator.

And therefore it’s necessary to hold these two points together, to be in Bina and Malchut simultaneously, and go forward like this. The person must be “divided” into two: into a body (desire to receive) and a soul (an intention to bestow). He requires this split. However, the desire doesn’t disappear; it’s not nullified, and I will need to work above it all the time. Within it dwells emptiness, and above it shines the goal that I want to attain. So the “head of the Partzuf” makes the right calculation in spite of the “rumblings of the stomach.”

However, both must be perceived by the receiver, as they are for the joy of the festival, continues Baal HaSulam. It is precisely between these two poles where happiness is found. Through our discussion today about the perpetual contrast between them, we build the foundation for the future Masach.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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We all become integrated with each other. All our thoughts are in each other. No matter how we express them, we still experience the same states internally. Which ones, it does not matter.

We study the wisdom of Kabbalah from the top downward, from the world of Infinity to our world, and here, at the convention on integral education, we pass it from the bottom up, discussing how to rise from our world to the world of Infinity.

It is all one methodology, the same at all the levels. The difference is only in understanding, in the depth of solutions to the questions that arise. But they are solved in the same way: by greater unity among us, integration with each other, connecting the wider circles of humanity to us, and naturally, together with this, even greater yearning for the Creator. That is all.

I am very glad that we have found this brief, simple scheme, because it could be difficult to express. Now, we have come to the state when seemingly we have succeeded and it is in front of us in a compact form.

We will still have to learn it well, put it inside ourselves so that everyone feels: “That’s how I have to work, and then everything will go smoothly.”

We will start to work on this whole scheme internally, will begin to perceive everything through it.

In general, well done! Thank you.
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From the Integral Education Convention, Day Two 2/3/14, Workshop 3

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Question: In what manner are we included in the ascents and descents of the friends?

Answer: We want to unite and be included in the feelings of the friends in that we nullify ourselves in regard to each other as much as our heart is ready for this. We want to take sandpaper and rub our heart so that it will be more sensitive to others; we want to do something with him so that he will not be so opaque. If I am linked to the heart of the friend, I acquire all that is in his heart: all his ascents and descents, everything that he did in the past, both the good things and the bad things.

In fact, it is not important if they are good or bad, for I acquire the intensity. The Creator arranged the bad things for a friend from the start. The good things could happen to him in the way of suffering or in the way of Torah and they pass over him. I can acquire, receive, all of this experience. It was specifically for this that there was the shattering of the desires so that everyone could do his small part of the work and could we could enrich each other through mutual integration.

We don’t understand what a spiritual level is. It is not so high that it is impossible to attain, but only if we take the entire history of each from each other. Through my inclusion with a friend, I acquire all the incarnations through which he passed, the entire way through which his soul passed, in that he descended from the world of Infinity (Olam Ein Sof) and was shattered together with my soul. And after this, we underwent a multitude of incarnations together, and now we have met in order to be linked with each other.

After the shattering of the collective soul, the souls were divided and distanced from each other. They passed through a long process of change, passing through Babylon and the rest of the trials. And now that they have finally reached connection, I can receive all that the rest went through and experienced throughout all of history, and therefore I become a complete Kli that includes the whole world within it. And this is how it is for each one of us, and nobody bothers another!  This is the unification of the integral Kli.

It is completely unimportant if the friend feels this or not. If I subdue myself and connect with him, I receive his effort, his connection, all that is in him.
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From a Preparation Lesson for the Arava Convention, 1/30/14

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Integral Education Convention, Workshop 1: We must not forget that every second each of us will experience exits from the state of unity and will return to it again.

It is actually thanks to such exits and returns that each of us and all of us together will gradually begin to feel our common space, until it becomes permanent, until we dwell in it permanently. We have to do this as quickly as possible.

We have to attain a new state in our group in the connection between us by rising above our ego, by connecting in mutual guarantee, and as if sacrificing ourselves for it. But in fact, it isn’t self-sacrifice at all.

It simply turns out that I prefer the desires and the goal of the group over my personal ones, although we understand that there is nothing personal here. It is all the advice and the instructions of the Creator to each of us: He gives us different hardenings of the heart, obstacles, problems, etc., so that we will be able to ascend above them.

Everyone has his own problems and everyone experiences them in his own way, but we have to collect them all, reject them, and ascend to the level of mutual guarantee.

There we connect and attain the connection correctly. We begin to feel the need to ascend to a higher level, to the Creator. Our next level is the Creator.

Thus we need to advance. When someone falls, we have to respond immediately and to pick him up. We have to constantly keep everyone floating with their heads above the water, until we become like a float, and thus constantly ascend, ascend, ascend. This refers to both women and men, to everyone personally. In this state we actually complete the whole work.

There are three parts in the spiritual Partzuf: HBD, HGT, and NHY. So on the lower levels they are fulfilled in greater details, but there is nothing new, only increasingly greater revelations of the same principles.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/02/14, Workshop #1

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We need connection, yet not connection between us, rather with the Creator. Therefore in order to reach connection with the Creator, to discover him, it’s up to us to build an appropriate relationship between us according to the principle, “the end of the action is in the preliminary thought.”

The connection between us must pass above the ego and cause mutual bestowal.

This connection must be equal for everyone, both distant and close. It’s up to us to be concerned about all of our friends all over the world since this makes it possible for us to feel if we are in bestowal or not.

This is because I don’t feel any closeness to friends who are far away. We are in an inner connection with people whose faces are familiar, and it’s different with friends who are not included in this circle. They provide me with the right feeling: Am I truly found in bestowal or not?

This is very important: Am I maintaining the right orientation? Am I concerned about all of the friends as they are, like a mother who brings all of her children “under her wing”? This is a sign for me of yearning for bestowal.

That is how each one examines himself, is concerned for others, and strengthens them. And together we aim to keep the connection with the Creator, for the compliance with the similarity of His properties. For this is what is most important, discovering the Creator according to our yearning for Him, for bestowal. And we realize this bestowal among us within the group, and also between all the friends around the world.

This is because there is no far and near in spirituality. Bestowal is bestowal. But the problem is that I don’t comprehend the entire system, only some part of it. But this part is also integral. It cannot be less than this or more than this, for there is no “partial” in spirituality. The system can be revealed to me to this degree or another, but there is no measuring stick for integrality, for it is always revealed one hundred percent in each part.

Therefore it’s up to us to aspire to feel a homogeneous group, complete in everything. There are no great and small, there are no far and near. I relate to all equally. This is a very important test with whose help I correct, “polish,” and “calibrate” the characteristic of bestowal within me so that it will be more and more correct.

And within the characteristic of bestowal, I become closer to feeling the Creator. And in this way I correct my Kli, vessel, desire; it comes closer and closer to discovering the higher power. It’s good and benevolent to the bad and the good, to the near and the far, to all without exception. Therefore I also advance in that way.

In this case, through my efforts, I awaken the Light that Reforms and it brings me into compliance with it. And so the question is, right now, how do we direct ourselves towards the power of bestowal, towards the Creator, with the help of an equal relationship to the near and the far?
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Preparation for the Integral Convention: Crisis

“As the advantage of the Light out of the darkness.” We have to explain to people what a great gift we were given. We are the ones who have to guide the whole world to the end of correction, which means to the revelation of the corrected state of humanity.

This is the reason that the world is revealed as global and the connection between all its parts is revealed as integral: Everyone is incorporated in everyone else and everyone depends on everyone else, and it’s impossible to correct one part of the world without correcting another part.

Why do all our plans fail? Why do we waste billions of dollars and nothing happens? Look at the world leaders who set the tone in politics, economics, industry, commerce, technology, education, culture, and the family: The higher their status and the greater the number of people who are affected by their decisions, the more mistaken they are.

Now we see more and more often that anyone who makes a decision by himself agrees that he is wrong. The reason is that we can only make decisions through unity. It doesn’t matter what level of unity it is, and you don’t have to reach the end of correction for that. You should only make a decision from a point where you really try to resemble the Creator as much as possible, even if the Creator is concealed.

A new leadership is revealed in the world these days. Previously the leadership was fulfilled along one line only and we advanced only by the power of blows. We felt bad and we escaped the bad feeling to the good, like animals. But now the leadership is revealed in two lines and so one person cannot make a decision since only a group can deal with it. A group should find a solution as the middle line.

In light of the five previous points of integral education, we can assess correctly why the world is in a state of crisis. On the other hand, there is no crisis in our group and we are advancing towards increasingly greater unity. This is why we discuss the crisis and solve it by ourselves.
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Preparation for the Integral Convention, Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 6

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From the book, Likkutei Halachot: The essence of love and oneness is in the desire where each one wants what his friend wants, and there is no difference in their desires, all are included in one desire, and through this they are included in the higher desire—unity.

I don’t know what this higher is. It has no form; it is not found. There is no higher by itself. Where is the spiritual ladder found? Was it in Jacob’s dream as the Torah tells us?

The ladder doesn’t exist without us. I create and build the higher the moment that I connect with the friends; with them I reach a complete degree of unity, and then a higher level that didn’t exist before is presented to me. So the Creator is called, “Come and See” because we build and create Him ourselves; we give Him His form.

Therefore it is written, “The essence of love and oneness is in our desire, where each one wants what his friend wants, and there is no difference in their desires so they are connected with each other, and included in one desire; through this they are included in the higher desire, and by reaching one collective desire we discover the higher—our unity.” Then we understand that we have reached the higher level.
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From a Preparation Lesson for the Arava Convention, 1/30/14

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