Raising the Heart by the Paths of the Creator

To achieve real unity, we must attract the Light that Reforms. It’s possible to attract it only by giving respect to the greatness of the goal, the group, the friends, and the upper force that takes care of us and to which we are heading. Thus, we come to the relationship with the Divine.

Having achieved that, we act together as commandos (like all those in our world who unite in groups), and from this point we begin to aspire more to the Creator. In order to come to the Creator, we need to raise our own importance. There is no other choice, not because we want to walk arrogantly turning up our nose at everyone else, but because it’s necessary. We need forces in order to connect even more deeply, we need a stimulus that will give us energy and an urgent need in compromises and unity.

Where do we get this stimulus? The answer is “to raise the heart by the ways of the Creator.” This means that we must rise above everyone, certainly not above the group, but above the whole world, all the ages, and all the generations. We have to be proud that we are the pioneers, the last generation that paves the way for all of humanity. We have to cultivate group pride, purposeful, positive pride.

This pride should be born through force: I am not happy about it and not wholeheartedly proud, I just have no other choice but to increase pride. And it’s a lot of work.

We should look for opportunities to strengthen and maximize mutual guarantee. Where can we get the “appetite” for it? As a rule the appetite for mutual guarantee comes from a wider environment. For this we have to work precisely on the awareness of the importance of our environment relative to a wider environment.

In other words, we work with our group and raise its importance above each of us. After that, we need to raise the importance of our group above a more external environment. Only then can we connect the desires of humanity and strengthen mutual guarantee.

We cannot strengthen mutual guarantee if we close ourselves within the group. This is possible only by connecting external vessels and opening the internal ones. “The fool folds his hands together and eats his own flesh”; this is not about a person who does nothing but about a person who does not care about expanding the vessels (Kelim). That’s why he is a fool.
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Preparation for the Integral Convention, Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 4

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The Torah, “Exodus,” 30:33: Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.

Oil, perfume, incense, these are very subtle ingredients of the influence of the Light on the desire. This is not talking about materials and objects in our world but about the right combination of the Light, meaning the characteristic of bestowal, acting upon this egoistic desire or another.

For a person who has risen to the level of a priest, the highest level of the characteristic of mutual bestowal, no desires remain to grab something for himself, to acquire, to take. This is an absolutely new level. On the previous level the person had to be ready like a priest, and on this level, he must also wash his hands and enter into the tent of assembly, meaning into a completely new level, a new desire, and begin to work with it.

We are composed of internal and external parts. That is, I exist in my body and the world exists around me. But the idea is that this world also constitutes my body, except that it situates itself as outside of me.

A person, unlike an animal, dresses in clothes. Therefore the external parts are classified as follows: body, clothing, tent, and then the wilderness, which symbolizes the surrounding space.

Clothes are the screens behind which I hide my ego, my shame, in contrast to my ego, protecting the body from cold, heat and so forth. The tent is also considered to be part of me and is designed to give me the next level of development where I can exist in it and equip myself; this is my house, but it’s not completely corrected yet; its characteristics have not been internalized yet. This is just like clothing.

At the end of correction, when I rise to the next level, my spiritual clothing becomes my body. After that, on the next level, the same thing happens with the tent, it becomes my internal part. And so I absorb the entire world into myself.

In other words, I am rising all the time in the hierarchy of spiritual levels, and when I enter into the next level, which had previously been my clothing, this clothing enters into me. When I rise to the next level, which had previously been a tent, I also absorb it into me. And so on.

So the more external desires that seemed completely foreign to me, that were unnecessary or even general rules for everyone and distant, gradually enter me and become my own. This continues until I begin to feel the entire soul, meaning the entire creation, as my personal spiritual body.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/9/13

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Question: To what level do we need to rise today? What exactly must we emphasize in attaining connection between us?

Answer: The first task is: “Love covers over all transgressions.” All evil that is revealed is discovered within the entire system and doesn’t depend upon anyone personally, even if it seems that this comes from someone or is discovered in someone. Everything that is revealed comes from the general integral system even if I see it locally and attribute it to a particular person and not the Creator. This is a defect in my comprehension.

All of the problems and defects are revealed so that I can rise above them again with faith above reason. If I discover negative characteristics in a friend (a friend who is with me on the path), this is a sign that I can accept him with faith above reason, with love.

All of the troubles and all of the joys, everything that happens with all of us, we must register this in our shared account and not attribute it to someone or something separate. This is all a game from above that the Creator plays with us.

The second task: We are not gathering in order to connect among us! We are coming to discover the Creator! And in order to discover Him we connect between us. Don’t confuse what is secondary from the essence.

Regarding everything that happens, we must feel first that this comes from Above and “If I am not for myself who will be for me?” and ultimately everything that happens is happening according to the program of creation. But in the middle, between these two points, the beginning and the end, I must reveal full devotion, nullify myself, and beyond this nullification, help everyone also to become like this as well.

First I nullify myself completely. And when I finish totally nullifying myself, then above my nullification, I begin to help others to do everything that they want. This is called reception for the sake of bestowal. Remember that our convention is not a convention of connection between us; instead, it is a convention of connection with the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How do I feel the friend’s ten spiritual Sefirot inside me and how they develop when I penetrate the friend?

Answer: If you penetrate the friend you begin to feel his ten Sefirot. They are felt as different tastes, as if you are in a good restaurant and received the main course, and next to it many other dishes: different salads and desserts. You begin to feel many flavors in the friends, different attributes.

When your connection continues to develop, nothing disappears from you. In the corporeal world we usually forget the weak flavors when we receive some great pleasure. It’s very common with small children who immediately throw away an old toy when they see a new one. But it’s different in spirituality where the Light of NRNHY operates and which includes many levels.

It says: “Love will cover all sins.” This means that we have to feel the sins, the conflicts and the love simultaneously, and there cannot be one without the other. This is the structure of the ten Sefirot of the Direct Light and of the Returning Light that are dressed into each other that we have to feel in all their opposite forms and attributes. One doesn’t extinguish the other. This is the wonder of the spiritual world where there cannot be “a little bit” of anything but rather the maximum. There is no past, no present, and no future; everything connects simultaneously into one feeling.

In the corporeal world we want to forget the family quarrels and to start a new leaf as if nothing happened, but this isn’t correction. The correction is actually when all the disagreements remain and nothing is forgotten and on top of it we establish an even greater state. This is actually the reason that everything flourishes. We have no such opportunity in the corporeal world but only in the spiritual world. When two opposites exist together in order to bestow, they amplify one another.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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From Shamati #4, “The Reason For The Difficulty Of Annulling Oneself For The Creator”: If one can magnify one’s vessels, to that extent he magnifies the luminescence. Yet the question is, with what can one magnify one’s vessels? The answer is, in the extent to which he praises and gives thanks to the Creator for having brought one closer to Him, so one would feel Him a little and think of the importance of the thing, meaning that he was awarded some connection with the Creator.

As is the measure of the importance that one pictures for oneself, so the measure of the luminescence grows in him.

At first, it seems to us that our task is to feel the Creator. It is like an egoistic desire: to see Him, to attain, to reveal. It is not understood how one can aspire to this reward because one has to work selflessly: without feeling and attainment, like slaves who are dedicated to their master no matter what they get. If it is bestowal, it should be pure.

Feeling the Creator already seems like a reward. But this is not so because in order to feel the Creator, one must become like Him, achieve the same properties, desires, and thoughts. Thus we are allowed to strive to reveal Him.

Kabbalah is the method of revelation of the Creator by created beings in this world,

meaning, correcting them to a state of equality, to similarity to the Creator. According to this similarity, the created being reveals the Creator and adheres to Him, feels that “the whole earth is full of His glory.” Every desire of a person is filled with the property of bestowal and love, which is called the “Creator.” A person takes this structure, the form of complete bestowal and love and this means that the Creator is clothed into him.

There is no Creator without the created being that would come from somewhere and become clothed into us. “This will be one’s entire work, meaning all the vigor that he puts into the work will be only to achieve that, and not for any other things”—in this correction that allows a person to achieve adhesion with the Creator and be grateful for that. That is, he puts efforts into work in order to adhere to the Creator, to reveal Him, changing and becoming like Him. He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward that he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator.

Faith is bestowal; that is, a person looks for an opportunity to bestow.

We must know that there is no difference between a small illumination and a great one, which a person attains. There is complete unlimited abundance in the world. Take whatever you want from creation—only use it correctly in order to build yourself in the corrected form. This is because there are no changes in the Light. Rather, all the changes are in the vessels that receive the abundance, as it is written, “I the Lord change not.”

Hence, if one can magnify one’s vessels, to that extent he magnifies the luminescence. Yet, the question is, with what can one magnify one’s vessels? The answer is, in the extent to which he praises and gives thanks to the Creator—that is, he values the property of bestowal and love that becomes high and desired for him; he feels grateful for having brought one closer to Him.

A person is grateful for the entire path: for all the bad and good. He understands that his life has not had a single state not aimed at the goal. It does not matter whether a person realized that or not, but the Creator steadily advanced him to the goal. Any event in human history was intended to strengthen our unity with the Creator.

The Creator all the time attracted a person, “so one would feel Him a little and think of the importance of the thing, meaning that he was awarded some connection with the Creator. As is the measure of the importance that one pictures for oneself, so the measure of the luminescence grows in him.”  If a person is constantly thinking only about this, then he feels the greatness of the property of bestowal and love; the state that he has to achieve, being detached from his “I.” To that extent, he attracts the Light that Reforms, which advances him in the desired direction.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/14

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Question: On the way to the convention, how do we keep from losing the approach and the guidance that we received while preparing for it?

Answer: I don’t think that a person loses his concentration when he is on the way. He yearns to be here, to be together with everyone. People are sending me emails or SMS that they are on the way and will arrive soon from all kinds of places. Their hearts are already here with us.

I am very happy that this time we are arranging a convention of true connection. We have reached such a state of ripening where it is possible to talk about love that has been built over hatred, about connection over distance. This indicates our ripening, our first level of maturity.

It is impossible to advance without being stabilized, without balancing the two forces within a person: the positive and the negative. The realization of the first spiritual level is to stabilize these two forces opposite each other and to be aware that this is precisely the way that we advance.
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From the Talk at a meal 1/26/14

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Question: We have tried to reconstruct the experience we had in the “aquarium” together with our friends who came to the convention. We held endless workshops and discussions. We had a certain feeling of connection between us, but each one felt it differently. What was it? How can we reinforce and keep this feeling that we all loved so much?

Answer: When people connect they go through special experiences. It happens in different kinds of connections, good or bad, no matter what their goal is. The connection itself gives a person a feeling of power, development, joy, and an outburst of energy.

But if the connection is aimed at everyone’s ascent above himself and at being able to dissolve among the friends, the spiritual force is revealed in it. The Light that Reforms operates on us according to everyone’s efforts to ascend above his own self, and it conveys the upper force that connects us and that makes us feel the connection. If everyone wants to annul himself with regard to the connection, the connection becomes very powerful since it is aimed at the Creator. This matches the attribute of the Creator, to connect above our ego, above ourselves.

According to our yearning “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me,” we begin to receive the illumination. This special action of the Upper Light raises us higher to new states in which we begin to feel certain spiritual revelations. We don’t know what we feel exactly and cannot decipher it, but we have a feeling of a more sublime state that is different and unlike anything we felt in the past.

It is a special pleasant excitement, but it can also become unpleasant. Everything depends on how a person holds on to this state and continues his work in the group. What you feel is the continuous affect of the Surrounding Light to the extent that you want to annul yourselves and to devote yourselves to the group without any excuses, simply because this is what Kabbalists advise us, what the teacher says, and what the books say.

If you want to change and connect into one body so that everyone will not feel himself anymore, but only the collective “us” between us, the upper essence, then you receive the effect of the Surrounding Light. This is a special force that begins to operate on you and brings about changes in your inner software.

It isn’t that you just expand your perception, feeling, understanding, and mind. The essence of your perception changes and becomes integral. This is something that didn’t exist before. You begin to feel that the space that surrounds you is transparent, homogeneous, in which there is one force that operates. A person feels that he belongs to this integral system.
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From the Talk at a Meal 1/27/14

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Question: The women have conducted a very powerful friends’ meeting. It wasn’t easy. We had to make great efforts and we felt the connection between us. How can we focus this connection on the men now in order to connect with them?

Answer: Women go through states that are more difficult than the men and it requires greater overcoming. I really appreciate the women’s efforts and hold great hopes on them. The men’s success greatly depends on the women, but it is much more difficult for the women to connect, so I am really delighted by their efforts.

The moment women can connect correctly, they will discover the bridge that connects them to the men. It will be one woman that is ready to connect to one man. But first you have to reach a good, strong connection between you.

It is much more difficult for women to connect than for men. A man feels that he is free like the wind, that he is not tied to a home. A woman, on the other hand, is called “home” which means that she has a very individual character and wants to have something of her own, her own place, her own family. Thus, the connection between women must shatter the partitions that separate them and this is much more difficult than for men. We see that friendship between men is much more meaningful than friendship between women. This is nature.

It is very hard work and I truly appreciate it, but you can easily overcome it if you ascend above your female nature. There is no need to delve into your flaws but rather to advance and ascend to the good, to the connection.

When women are able to connect, they attain the ability, understanding, mind, and heart that guide them as how to help the men. For now you can’t help the men, you have to connect between you.

In the past we were on an evolutionary level where women couldn’t connect and the woman’s role was only to support the man. But we have reached a new era now in which the men connect between them and the women connect between them. Later we will see how we form a circle within a circle.

In the meantime, we are working only on connection and there is no need to look at the future or at the past. Today our work is the connection between the men and the connection between the women in order to reach mutual guarantee inside every circle.
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From the Talk at a Meal 1/26/14

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The Raspberry Ball

The “raspberry ball” is totally, absolutely losing all individual attitude to the friends. We take off all our garments of the physical body, and inner qualities of everything that we have received from nature; only the spark remains, the Reshimo, inherent in everyone, everyone’s spiritual core, his aspiration for unity.

If I still distinguish a different attitude, differences between us, then it is not a group. The group is when all the friends are equal, when I see no difference between them. They are all Reshimot; everyone is striving to reach unity.

During the first stage of the introduction to mutual guarantee, the Creator just brings us to connection and it is a rather theoretical state. On the other hand, to form the raspberry ball, we should already actively connect with everyone. The work with the raspberry ball starts with the efforts not to see any differences between friends and ends when all of them unite into one.

If we are united as a homogeneous group as the landing party, similar to other connections that people create in this world, it is not yet “one.” Indeed, in a physical unity of this kind, everyone wants to reach a goal; everyone has his own goal, and everyone is ready to unite for the sake of his individual goal.

We do not act like that. Here, everyone has to cancel himself for the sake of unity with others, giving up individual goals.

In this self-annulment, we don’t lose our mind or feelings but gain the mind of the entire group that is called “as one man with one heart.” One collective desire is revealed in which everyone feels his individual properties. Like in the system of cogwheels, he begins to spin with everyone, without pressure, and from here he understands how they rotate and why. This means “to know what the friend has in the heart.” Everyone knows this differently, according to his properties.

Thus we come to the raspberry ball.
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All of our lives must be directed towards the one cause from which this life is derived, that is, towards the Creator. And He is the goal we must achieve. And all the events in our life in our world are in sum derived from that thought of creation. And if we direct ourselves correctly at every moment towards that unique goal that is shaped by the thought of creation, we advance on the “royal road.”

Clarifying the direction and being conscious of this way is possible through the means that are given to us in this world. This world is created and stabilized in such a way on all of its levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human and the relationships between them all only to give us the unique possibility of correct action, meaning that we direct ourselves towards the Creator at every moment.

And the means that helps us to direct ourselves towards the Creator from every circumstance that happens to us in this world is the group. The group is like a mini-humanity within which we find ourselves in the right environment that we have constructed for ourselves. The more we organize it in an ideal, correct, good, and true form, through this we can rise higher and higher. The group is a level that is above me towards which I elevate myself more and more upward through the society.

Work in society is interesting and unique in that it becomes the intermediary between us and the Creator and between us and humanity. I cannot find the Creator by myself because I must reach equivalence of form with Him for this. In order to become equivalent to the Creator I must achieve “for the sake of bestowal,” essentially I must be in the intention to bestow. And this is possible only if I insert myself into a group and lose myself there. If together with the group I go out towards the Creator, surely I will be found in bestowal.

In order to bestow to the Creator by way of the group, I must carry the entire group in the direction of bestowal to the Creator. Therefore together we must mold the group in this direction with such a goal, with such a mission, to be connected in order to bestow to the Creator. This must be our shared goal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/14, Workshop

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