Our goal is to reach equivalence and harmony with the Light, in other words, to reach the completion of correction, to eternal love and bestowal. This state requires our awareness and sensation of, and elevation to all the required characteristics in order to understand what we are lacking to resemble the Light, which inner changes we must go through.

That is, all of our work is to understand what I am feeling now and what I would be feeling in the corrected state. In every state I must react like the Light.

At every moment of my life, I must yearn for balance with it, meaning, to equivalence of form. For this, first of all, it is necessary to be aware of the properties of the Light. However, in the meantime, we are in concealment and don’t feel the Light as long as we have not reached equivalence of form with it, and how can I resemble the Light if I don’t feel it?

Here, a condition saves us which was created especially for us: this world. It is a wonder that doesn’t exist in any of the other worlds. Here, in this world, even though I am in the complete shattering, completely opposite to the Light, in spite of it all, I have the possibility of discovering desires that, like me, are searching for equivalence with the Light. Like me, they receive this aspiration from Above, this drop of semen, this “point in the heart,” without which this aspiration would not be awakened.

From this point, we already can begin with actions similar to the Light. That is, when we interact with one another, we can create from ourselves an example of what is called the action of the Light: bestowal, love, mutual help, mutual cooperation, and awakening. We have the opportunity of doing those actions that the Light does with us to warm each other a bit, to agitate, meaning to arouse desire and envy in a friend.

Instead of the Light, the Creator, we get the group. The Creator brings the person to the good fortune and says, “Take it!” In other words, He brings him to a laboratory, puts him into the model through which we can advance with the help of the friends in spite of our shattered, ruined state. The Creator brings you to them, and now you begin to act!

Everything else depends upon you, upon the manner in which you do the work and relate to the group as to the Creator who bestows to you. When you begin the dialog, the reciprocal work, with the group, you will clarify how the group influences you and you influence the group. Then, it is possible to rise together.

So, we must reach a state that is called Arvut (mutual guarantee) that obligates mutual help and mutual influence by everyone for every member of the group. We present ourselves before every friend as the bestowal of the Light, of the Creator upon him, and he must react to us like a creature that wants to correct himself and resemble the Light.

In other words, each one wants to identify with the group, to be connected, to adhere to it, to become one man with one heart, with one mind. That is, I must melt into the friends absolutely so that nothing will be left of me. I want to immerse into the group. That is what each one must do, and with this, everyone is helping everyone.

As a result of this, after the last drop of effort, we truly become one man with one heart. This drop is like the last bite we eat at a meal, and, after it comes the satiety, and we feel that we have filled ourselves. In this way, we complete a full HaVaYaH, ten Sefirot. You see, only the last phase, Malchut de Malchut, feels, understands, and knows with whom it is dealing, why and how it must behave, how it is constructed, how the Creator is constructed, and what must be done in response if it gets everything from Him: both the Light and the desire.

So Arvut is the first stage—connection into a single whole—and it seems that there is nothing more to do. However, we understand that, in the meantime, these are just words, as it is said, “the end of the action, is in the initial thought.” In thoughts, we already want to reach the final outcome, but you must go by a path that can be long. You see, I must build myself, and only then will I recognize the Creator.

Everything is created from Above in a perfected form, but the creature must attain this perfection, be aware of the Creator, become like Him, understand Him to His entire depth, and resemble Him in all his actions. You see, if the state of the creature is less than complete equivalence with the Creator, it is not considered that the Creator has been beneficial to him.

We must pass through all of these stages, and as long as we have not finished the previous stage, we cannot pass to the next stage. Therefore, from the beginning, we are talking about Arvut, about attaining equivalence of form with the Creator, about harmony with nature: coupling, embracing, kissing, all expressions of equivalence of form with the Creator, and in spite of it all, these are all still words, and now we begin to construct this state; that is, we enter into the second stage and beyond. Overall, it is possible to discover the nine stages on the way to spiritual discovery.
[124841]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

Related Material:
A Juicer (Made In Egypt)
Degrees Of Mutual Guarantee
The Conditions Of Mutual Guarantee

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

A person’s work with the group is meant to sustain the connection with the friends even if he draws away from them physically, when he goes to work or when he goes home. I should not break away from them even when I am in difficult states, not only in fatigue or indifference, but even when I feel hate and repulsion.

The Upper Light plays with me while I have to divide myself into two parts. The first part is all I feel since all these feelings come from the Light into my desire. The second half determines what I should do, it controls me.

It is as if I have two roles. The first role is to feel the states that the Light brings me as deeply as I can. The second role is to control my feeling and to understand where it comes from, what causes it and how I should change it in order to advance to the desired state.

I have to be an expert inspector, examining, clarifying, and checking myself to direct myself to the goal. Later these two discernments merge and thus become the body (Guf) and the head (Rosh) of the spiritual Partzuf. The head determines what happens in the body and how it should function but only if this part, my expert, has control over the other part, over the desire.

In the meantime I try to exist in these two roles and to constantly see myself from the side, thus clarifying what the Light does with me, how I change, how I should change, and how I should react to each and every state.

I constantly assess myself from this control system. I change by becoming more independent of my feeling, of the discernments in my desire. I try to do my best not to identify with the desire and to rise above it. This means that my “head” is above the “body.”

This is the function of the second phase along the way of our spiritual advancement. I expect to reach a state in which I feel that all the desires and inclinations that are created in me by the Light are good, although I don’t feel them that way and don’t see that they are valuable since everything is broken. But they are good and beneficial to my advancement and are essential along the way: I have to gradually correct them one by one, to collect them to the one goal, to adhesion to the Creator, since these are parts of my soul.

So I examine myself like an assessor who sees all the corruptions in me and am glad about it since only by correcting them can I advance. If I discover greater corruptions, it’s a sign that I am advancing well since I have revealed such great deficiencies I should do something about . This means that on the one hand, this problem can occupy all my thoughts and all my heart. I find myself in a terrible situation and don’t know what to do about it. The problems are so great that my head explodes because of the horrible tension.

But on the other hand, I should know that this whole state was sent to me by the Creator so that I will solve all these problems only in the connection with Him and with the goal. The solution to the problem begins when the goal becomes more important than the problem.

If this is how I see these two approaches, then I don’t care about what happens to me: My goal is to be corrected and to resemble the Creator in bestowal, love, and adhesion which are more important to me than my personal state. Thus I solve every state. If I place myself above the state, it usually doesn’t need a solution anymore. I see that I don’t need anything else, “everything is resolved in the thought.” With regard to our state, it means that every state is less important than our mutual guarantee, since mutual guarantee is the goal that we have to reach in the connection between us.
[124929]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

Related Material:
Separate Yourself From Your Own Self
A Black Box Sailing In The Waves Of Light
Feel Like A Welcome Guest

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Are there external measurements or revelations that show the purity of my intention?

Answer: Your real intentions are not known, even to you, and others certainly don’t know them. Thus, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the hidden wisdom, the inner part of the world, since it talks about that which is not revealed in our world.

How can we determine our intentions? Just try to do everything in the group with good intentions and gradually you will begin to feel as you lie to others and yourself, and you will enjoy it as a revelation of truth.

Moreover, it suggests that not only did you previously have bad intentions in action and now their real essence is revealed, but also in the future, they will remain like that. So, what is there to do? It is to ask for good intentions.

Thus, begin to perform good physical acts for the good of the group, try to work within them with the correct intention. As a result of that you reach a conclusion that all of that is done only for your sake.

This is the correct result, you reveal the truth. And even though you feel uncomfortable, you must be thankful to the Creator and ask that from now on He will give you the opportunity to do the right thing. Then, you are given the correct intention.

The next time when you do something for the group, again you will be shown that you had an incorrect intention, and again in an identical way, you go forward. In this advancement via cycles, you constantly discover within yourself the incorrectness of your intentions, but you discover them each time at a new level.

Of course, it is an unpleasant situation. However, by way of general support, by overall inspiration, by understanding that it is specifically in this way that we advance, you will see that it is a wonderful internal battle. In the end, from within all of these conflicting sensations, man begins to understand himself, the world, and the Creator.
[124719]
From the Moscow Virtual Convention 12/13/13, Lesson 2

Related Material:
Correct Intention
If The Intention Is Right, The Desire Doesn’t Need To Be Checked
A Plate Broken For Good Luck With Intention

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Will a group be homogeneous if it has attained some level of an integral state?

Answer: Yes, not just members of one group, but also all integral groups will look quite alike. After all, if by nature, our personal, mental, moral, and physical potential is different in all of us, we become included one into another when we study together in a group. We form one common organism, and all these properties become distributed among us. In this case, there can’t be any failures. No one corrupts the team because the common, dominant atmosphere points to the correct behavior. The most important thing here is not to stick oneself out in front, but rather to lower oneself next to the others. This is considered valor.
[124402]
From Kab TV’s “Integral World” 10/26/12

Related Material:
A Collective Cooking Pot Of The Spiritual Filling
Incredible Action
Eyes On The Integrality

Filed under: Children, Education, Group Work, Integral Upbringing, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”: How could it be that transitory, wasteful actions would extend from the eternal? And we see that, indeed, we have already been extended as is fitting for His Eternalness—eternal and perfect beings. And our eternalness necessitates that the Klipa of the body, which was given to us only for work, will be transitory and wasteful. For if it remained in eternity we would remain forever separated from the Life of Lives.

We have said before (Item 13), that this form of our body, which is the will to receive for ourselves alone, is not at all present in the eternal thought of creation, for there we are in the form of the third state. Yet, it is obligatory in the second state, to allow us to correct it.

And we must not ponder the state of other beings in the world but man, since man is the center of Creation, as will be written below (Item 39). And all other creatures do not have any value of their own but to the extent that they help man achieve his perfection. Hence, they rise and fall with him without any consideration of themselves.

Our present condition, which looks so bad and low, is given to us deliberately so that we would detect perfection from it. “The advantage of light is known from the darkness.”

Moreover, all the other creatures are included in this analysis together. Indeed, the reality that we see outside is actually a projection of our inner properties. I have all the four stages of “material” desire, but I detect only the fourth, the human degree.

This also applies to our world. If we identify all the correct forms of relationships between us in humanity, it will be enough to correct the previous levels: still, vegetative, and animate. By correcting itself, the fourth level also corrects the previous ones that are included in it.

After all, other creatures have no freewill. They are automatically included in the human being during his correction. Therefore, if it were corrected, for example, ten percent, then all the surrounding nature would be corrected to the same extent.

So, our real concern is not the environment, not the climate, not pollution, but just our own corrected attitude to each other. To the extent we correct this attitude, in the same measure natural disasters abate and environmental problems subside.

Thus, Baal HaSulam gives us the key to correction of not just humanity, but of the whole world, including the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Do you want to appease the Earth so that it provides you with everything in the best form: food, water, and air? Do you want to feel a sense of comfort and calm, where nothing pressures you, threatens you, where there is a lovely cloud around you, caring and friendly? Then correct yourself and don’t be diverted by anything else. A person should not be distracted by the universe, which is a copy of his flaws, but remember that all “external” flaws depend on him and are given to him, so that based on them, he verifies and identifies perfection.

Then he will see what was said: “We were like in a dream.” In other words, everything that we experience now and will experience on the following degrees of the spiritual ladder to the final correction is a “dream,” artificially given to us from Above in the form of the corrupted world, so that by its means, studying the system from flaws to correction, we know the Creator, according to the principle, “By Your actions we will know You.” From knowing Him, as a consequence, we will be able to adhere to Him in perfection, which is the goal of creation, the goal of all the worlds, of their creation, the breaking and correction.
[125156]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Why Did Dinosaurs Become Extinct?
The Human Being Is Intention
A Blister On The Beautiful Face Of Creation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

There is a force in The Book of Zohar we can use. But in order to discover the inner potential of this book, we have to be on its level to some extent. So how does this mechanism work? In legends and fairy tales the hero finds a secret chest that he opens with a big heavy key. Which key will open the secret of The Zohar for us? What is the key that fits every lock? It’s the equivalence of form. This is the key that we put into the keyhole. It’s only by the equivalence of form that we can open The Book of Zohar. This is the basic key rule.

Later, of course, we need the group and the connection with the friends, etc. in order to reach an equivalence of form with this book. Thus, we open The Zohar and read it according to our equivalence of form, according to the love and hate that are in contrast to one another.

This means that it isn’t that simple to really open the book. If we open the book it doesn’t mean that the book really opens up before us yet. It all depends on what happens between us. If we are connected, we are also connected to the book and then to the same degree we can attain it and feel the group of Rabbi Shimon, the ten friends, the ten Sefirot. It isn’t about people but about their essence, about the quality that is in the desire. Thus we begin to know them, are attracted to them, and a bit of each of them is revealed in us.

We have enough power. By annulling our ego and in the connection above it, we establish a connection that helps us discover what is written in The Zohar. We establish the foundations, the infrastructure, a common place, since the spiritual spot can only be collective. Here we become equal to the first level of the revelation of The Book of Zohar, in the intensity of our connection above the interruptions, according to the law of the equivalence of form.

In order to do that we will gather at the February convention and we make great efforts and pay a lot of money while giving up many other things in order to reach this general gathering. All this effort should bring us to an ascent and to connection. This is how it was arranged from Above: If we use the means that have been prepared for us, we reach the desirable outcome.
[125040]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/14,, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

Related Material:
Zohar For All
The Power Of The Book Of Zohar
The Key To The Book Of Zohar

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Every time I feel comfortable, I am thrown somewhere like on a swing: to a good state or to a bad state. How can I find the middle line in the movements from left to right?

Answer: We are thrown to and fro from the balance point since it’s the only place we can advance from. If I want to adhere to the group, to the teacher, to the books, to the goal, then I realize myself.

The center is usually opposite from my desire and my mind. The balance point is always above the left and the right line, in the middle line. It’s faith above reason, above what the heart and mind tell me. So what can I hold on to so that I won’t count on chance? The only thing that can guide me is what the group, the teacher, and the books obligate me to do.

We should only make sure that we understand and that we’ve heard the right advice. We feel so confident that the teacher meant what we think and we actually argue about that with one another. Everyone hears something different, so how can I be sure that what I have heard is right?

If I annul myself in order to adhere to the group, I begin to hear the right advice. The greater and higher a person is, the more he should humble himself.
[124807]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, Shamati #72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

Related Material:
There Is No Evil Without Goodness
Comprehend The Higher Power Of Nature
A New Type Of Ego

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: I don’t understand what I should do next. I don’t understand the meaning of your actions. Guide us in some way as to how I can be helpful and what I should do, what I should hold on to.

Answer: The sequence of our actions is that we first learn about the structure of the upper worlds and then we study articles about the connection in the group, about mutual guarantee, and then we fulfill these articles and gather in workshops, thus building one whole from the “I” of every individual that yearns to “we.” We build a single united unit, one, according to the law of the equivalence of form in an attempt to unite with the one Creator.

Here we begin to feel that we lack the desire, the power, the yearning, and we realize that without dissemination we will not be able to discover these powers by ourselves. Only by worrying about the external society as about our own children will we be filled with the desire to attain what they need. So with their desires, we turn to the Creator since we have no other choice, and unite with Him, which is the goal of creation.
[125121]

Related Material:
Equality In The Group Is A Vital Necessity
A Never-Ending Workshop
From External Dissemination To The Revelation Of The Creator

Filed under: Group Work, Q&A, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The influence of the group must be so strong that “it doesn’t let me sleep.” That is, that I will never be able to forget about the importance of connection; rather, I will feel that this thought is stuck in my mind and heart, a permanent backdrop.

It is absolutely possible to attain this. No one can complain that this does not work. If he thinks so, he is simply lying to himself. For this, we only require work and time.

If the person places himself under the influence of the group and is under its healing power, he cannot become detached, as if he is drawn by a magnet or some kind of wave that holds him in its field. He becomes linked to an environment that he chose himself at one stage. However, after the choice is made, he enters under the influence of the environment, the friends, appreciates the same values, and thinks the same way as everyone, for, if the group is important to him, he will accept all of its opinions, even those that he didn’t value, didn’t love, and didn’t think were good and beautiful before.

We see from our lives that if we love and appreciate someone, we begin to accept and copy his behavior because we appreciate him as higher than us and we depend upon him.

Therefore, the ego doesn’t become a disturbance for us, and if we have not succeeded, the reason for this is that we have not invested enough energy in strengthening the group. We have not utilized envy. The teacher also learns from his students, as it is said, “I learned much from my teachers, even more from my friends, and even more from my students.” Therefore, you can learn from everyone that you teach.

The moment that we feel some kind of inner resistance, we need to accept this as the “left line” against which the “right line” is awakened. The society will stand against this disturbance and then we will see that this is not a disturbance, but rather an opportunity to connect the two lines and build the “middle line” between them in order to advance even further toward a portrayal of the Creator.

We are trying to connect the broken parts of the soul as if we were connecting gears. However, we don’t want them to be pressed onto each other and compelled to rotate as happens in a regular society. We want them to begin to turn in a synchronized manner through helping each other, avoiding pressure by any one of them on another. All of them must turn in full agreement and harmony. That is, each one feels himself as completely free, without any pressure, because the Light turns and moves everyone together.

When the Creator is revealed, no pressure of one on another remains in any direction and all are driven by means of the Light. This is as it is written, “And the third party will come and reconcile them with each other.”

Revealing the evil inclination within himself, he can check whether he is able to pass to the right correction immediately. If he immediately accepts this discovery of ego as a help, as something good and useful, “a helpmate against him,” then he immediately can work with this and build the “middle line,” and the middle line is already the discovery of the Creator, and then the work becomes so easy for a person, without any friction, that he feels as if he is simply floating in air.

However, it is impossible to remain in a state like this because oscillations come all the time, right and left, and the person balances between them in the middle line, which is called the line of accommodation, equivalence of form.
[124511]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/14, Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention

Related Material:
At The Entrance To The Tunnel
I Want To Go On!
The Conditions Of Mutual Guarantee

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“: To understand these questions and inquiries, the only approach is to examine the end of the act, that is, the purpose of Creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end. And it is clear that there is no act without a purpose, for only the insane can act purposelessly.

A person never acts purposelessly. If a person doesn’t think, why he should exert himself; it is a sign of mental disorder or that it is a child who is driven by the plan of his natural development, although we cannot detect that by the actual actions. When a person builds a house in order to live in it, everything is clear to us. But we must understand that we cannot always see the clear outcome of an action. If we don’t see the outcome, it means that it is a certain disorder that does not exist in nature.

We will speak about why there are such defects in the world, but for now let’s agree that they bring about unplanned actions.

I know that there are those who cast over their backs the burden of Torah and Mitzvot (plural for Mitzva), saying the Creator has created the whole of reality, then, left it alone, that because of the worthlessness of the creatures it is not fitting for the Exalted Creator to watch over their mean little ways.

In other words, there are people who don’t think that we have to correct our desire to receive by the Mitzvot, as it says “I have created the evil inclination I have created the Torah as a spice for it.” So the Torah is the Light that Reforms, the means of correction in which there is a special force.

Our desire is divided into 613 parts and they are all corrupt; “a person’s inclination is evil from his youth.” We have to correct the evil inclination with the help of the Light that Reforms called the Torah. So, people who assume that this is not true are called those who cast over their backs the burden of the Torah and the Mitzvot. They want to live their ordinary life and not correct their nature and reach an equivalence of form with the Creator and adhere to Him. They don’t understand the goal of creation and don’t understand why the evil inclination was created in the first place.

Indeed, without knowledge they have spoken, for it is impossible to comment on our lowliness and nothingness, before we decide that we have created ourselves with all our corrupted and loathsome natures.

The goal of creation is to benefit the created beings. To “benefit” means that the created being becomes similar to the Creator, since He is good and benevolent to a full measure that cannot be underestimated. I cannot do something good to a lesser degree since it would mean that I am not benevolent. So the created being has to reach the level of the Creator, but in order to feel the Creator, he has to remain a created being. So when the created being comes closer to the Creator, he feels how opposite he is from Him. It is only by the contrast between the Light and darkness in a person that he feels the full height of the level of the equivalence of form with the Creator.

This is the reason for the corruption of the world, and this is the reason that we don’t understand or feel the Creator and so we cannot justify this state.

All this is true, but we have to study the reason for that. The world is built that way on purpose so that we will correct it by ourselves. The world is actually the general corrupt desire to receive. So we were given the Torah, not the book of the Torah but the Upper spiritual force, the Light that Reforms, that we can draw upon our ego, upon all the corruptions in us, and thus fulfill the correction until we are not “those who cast over their backs the burden of the Torah and the Mitzvot.”

“But while we decide that the Creator, who is utterly perfect, is the One who created and designed our bodies with all their admirable and contemptible attributes, surely there can never emerge an imperfect act under the hand of the perfect worker, as each act testifies to its performer. And what fault is it of a bad garment, if some no-good tailor has made it?”

So we cannot have any complaints about the created being, since if there is a Creator, all your complaints should be to Him.

This is why we said that the creation was initially corrupt so that we will correct it by ourselves and on the way collect all the parts of the puzzle so that we will feel that He is the good and the benevolent leading us to eternity and wholeness.

Such as this we find in “Masechet Taanit,” 20: “A tale about Rabbi Elazar who came across a very ugly man.”

Rabbi Elazar, the son of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, felt inside him the revelation of the most terrible ugly man. He felt that he was totally filled with all the possible negative attributes a person could have. It is a very high level. Since “the Creator has created them in contrast to one another,” and “he who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater.” This means that Rabbi Shimon was ready to accept the revelation of all the evil in him in the ugliest possible forms.

He said to him: “How ugly this man is.” The man replied: “Go and tell the craftsman that made me, ‘How ugly is this vessel you have made.’” Hence, those who claim that because of our lowliness and nothingness, it is not fitting for Him to watch over us, and therefore He has left us, do nothing but display their ignorance. Try to imagine, if you were to meet some man who would create creatures, precisely so they would suffer and agonize their whole lives as we do, and not only that, but cast them behind his back, not wanting even to look after them, to help them a little. How contemptible and low you would regard him! Can such a thing be thought of Him?

Has the Creator created everything only so the created being will suffer? Of course not. Imperfect actions cannot be derived from the perfect One who acts.
[123988]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Conversation Between The Creator And His Beloved Creation
Genuine Creation
The Purpose Of Creation Is Adhesion With The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work - No Comments →