Question: From whom do I get a greater desire: the group or the external audience?

Answer: These are two different forms of desire. I get the need for unity and cohesion from the group, and from the external audience, the need for the Creator. Yes, precisely for the Creator.

After all, I myself have no need for Him and neither do my friends. The point in the heart only aims us in His direction but does not give any real momentum; it does not increase the “flesh” of desire; it does not form an empty, hungry vessel.

In uniting with friends, we do not demand the Creator. Nothing pressures or urges us to do that. How much can our own desires spur us? A little bit more and a bit more, but it is an artificial pressure. Everyone is a great guy, everyone is right; there is no such desire between us that will oblige us to act with no exit.

When will it arise? When people require us to respond to their needs, whatever they may be. We will find ourselves under pressure; the need to help them arises, to take care of them and help them, and that’s when we really need the Creator. An inescapable, irresistible desire can come to the created being only under external pressure.

That is why we have no possibility to advance towards the Creator if we do not go out into the world and do not take care of a wide audience.

Even the need to unite in the group will not be saved without outside pressure. Indeed, why do we need to unite? He who wants nothing for himself feels good in a hut in a forest with no amenities. The vessels of bestowal do not feel the need to unite. The points in their hearts do not seek it by themselves.

But what will they bring to the Creator? What kind of receiving vessels are able to lead to correction? It turns out that in fact we have nothing.

On the other hand, the unity of the masses has enormous potential of vessels that have not been manifested yet, both material and especially spiritual.

That is why connection in the group, as well as concern for the public, is possible only under external pressure. Pharaoh helps the sons of Israel escape from Egypt. His army pursues them, “looming over them,” forces them to enter the Red Sea and then stand at Mount Sinai. They do not agree, but after the breaking of the first tablets, they receive the Torah, and the process goes on.

We cannot manage without the pressure from the outside, it is necessary for us. Yes, by uniting between ourselves, we can somewhat neutralize this pressure but not completely.

Question: Does every friend need to connect to the outside desires or is it enough if the world group as a whole is involved in this?

Answer: Both. Both individual and general work is necessary here in various forms. First, we have to get together inside in order to understand how to reach out to the outside audience and then become integrated with it to feel the need in the inner unity again. Then, we need to demand the revelation of the Creator between us in order to give Him pleasure by transferring fulfillment to the external Kli.

Thus, we will take the place of the conductor,  the “transmission channel,” transition link, and realize our destiny.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam “Inheritance of the Land”: It is said, “according to my sorrow is my reward.” This means that the reward is measured by the amount of sorrow. Sorrows and exertions are needed only to find the vessel that will receive a good reward. And the more human one’s sorrow in spiritual work is, the greater his vessel is, which is ready to finally get the maximum reward. We measure everything according to the vessel, desire.  The Light is in absolute rest, and it all depends on the vessels, on how we develop them. And the vessels are the essence of suffering.

However, in spirituality this suffering becomes sweet and is called “pangs of love.” There, the pain of lack can be combined with pleasure, and they do not neutralize each other as in our world. Here, after a few sips, I am no longer thirsty, and every time, having received something, I become satiated. It is different in spirituality since both the need and pleasure are aimed at bestowal, they support and increase each other.

It turns out that I constantly feel lack and pleasure, but not as opposites, and I constantly flourish, develop in them. Together, they become a sense of eternal life for me. That’s where we are going. You see yourself that this knowledge can only come from above. The person himself has no opportunity to grasp at least its “edge.” No matter how much philosophers and thinkers have tried to figure out the age-old questions, it is impossible. After all, the answers are not inherent in our current egoistic nature.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is our ego, is it a feeling or a mental perception?

Answer: We can compare the brain to a movie screen since it is actually blank. Today, for example, you seem to be ugly and disgusting, and tomorrow after a change of state, I may look at you and see before me a fine guy that radiates vitality. Does my brain depict these pictures, is it the screen? Or do I project them? My ego, my interest, depicts all these figures, but we don’t understand this until the end.

We believe that we are objective when it comes to the still, vegetative, and animate nature, but on the level of the speaking, in the relations between us, there are different variables. Generally speaking, we don’t actually understand that we are the ones depicting our own world on every level of the desire to receive.

This is why our world is called imaginary since it doesn’t actually exist. The moment you clean your ego from the perception of this world, it will disappear. And what will be left? Nothing?

So what will we be left with? Start establishing this “something” now. Start building a new world. It all depends on what you draw on the screen of your perception.

Question: But how do we draw these pictures if they immediately seem real to me?

Answer: I imagine a force that controls me, that surrounds me, that manages me and confuses me, sending me positive and negative things. This whole situation, the bubble I am in, operates on me; it is like a science fiction movie since we have to imagine something and work on something in our imagination. So I imagine a certain space in which a certain force or a force field operates. In the meantime, I cannot manage without this three dimensional illusion with the different phenomena of time and space. I am connected to it whether I want to be or not.

I imagine a force that surrounds me as if I am in a cloud. This force operates on me in every direction and in every possible aspect. Even now when I think about it, it actually operates me; I am relaxed, let it operate me. But what do I have besides this operation?

Because without any additions of my own, I can only constantly yearn for a good feeling and how to thank this force for its good care. It has created a deficiency in my feeling, a desire to receive, and I feel good in this world under its domination.

It turns out that we don’t need anything but that. The whole philosophy of the epicurean school is based on this approach. Other Eastern methods also believe in nirvana and peacefulness. This attitude is in fact the deepest since it is based both on the fear of disrupting something in creation and on the fear of cursing the Creator. So I have to constantly feel good. I constantly try to be calm and relaxed and to be happy with what I have, not because the ego drives me to do so but because of a more sublime intention. In short Abraham worked well with this approach in Babylon.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: In our times, when we experience new problems from all different sides every few seconds, and all we do is battle with them. what special means are offered by Kabbalah that do not exist anywhere else?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah explains where all this evil comes from and the reason for our bad states. It asserts that evil does not come from somewhere on the outside, from other people or circumstances, it points directly to the inside, telling me: “You are the cause of all evil!”

A person finds it very difficult to agree with this so one immediately pushes Kabbalah away. However, after Kabbalah points to the cause of evil, it explains that there is just one chance to reach goodness: by correcting the evil in oneself to goodness. And the good isn’t for me, it is for all the others!

So not only do I need to admit that all evil is inside me and to correct myself so that others receive the good, I also need to enjoy this without feeling my state and only worrying about how good others feel. Who will buy such a methodology?!

This is why it is only appropriate for those in whom there is a point of truth, and due to their nature, they are unable to remain in a lie any longer: They need the truth no matter what! This demand comes to a person from nature and not because he is so special and such a great hero.

It’s simply that the desire to reveal the truth becomes more important to him than all the other aspects of life. A new desire to reveal the truth suddenly is born in him; this desire was not there before. Meanwhile, those who just have the one previous desire for our world are willing to live in a lie. So they run after everything that contributes to this lie by satisfying their egoism. Only those people in whom a desire for the truth arose, which they are powerless to suppress, accept the method of Kabbalah with gladness. After all, they have no choice; nothing else will help them. And such people advance.

However, if a person is still able to consent to some compromise, he will run away. We cannot blame or scorn him for this since you would have done the same thing if you were in his place… Such is nature: The stronger of two forces outweighs the other; the mechanics is very simple.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why is it so hard for us to ask for correction if we know that everything depends on it? It would seem that it’s so natural for a person to ask.

Answer: Yes, it is natural to ask, but here we need to find out exactly: What do we need to ask for, how do we ask, and who is the one that will give us the answer? A prayer is not just a cry, and if it’s put into words, they should be born in the heart not read from a book.

If a person feels bad, he doesn’t choose beautiful words. Our problem is that a prayer doesn’t come from the depth of our hearts.

Only the environment can lead us to such a prayer; if it wants it, you will ask. Why does it seem to us that we all want it and are trying to influence each other but something doesn’t work? The main thing we are lacking is the depth of desire, the truth which is in it. We lack clarification of what is important to me, and that it is secondary to stop being confused between the two desires: material and spiritual.

We have to learn to cast two entirely separate views at the material and the spiritual without mixing them together! Here is this world, egoistic, I’m forced to live in it in the meantime. And there is the world of bestowal and I wish I could begin to live in it. That determines my prayer.

We are still unable to distinguish one from the other, although we can see a lot of progress in it since the last congress.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam wrote: I have built for you the order that will help you not to roll backward. And the main thing in this arrangement is the unity of friends. And I give you my complete assurance; this is to say, he really guarantees that this love is true, factual, and actual. …and with this I remind you of the validity of this love and all those useful things that follow after it. And if you are strengthened by this, then without a doubt you will go from strength to strength towards spiritual success. Because the idea is to make yourself like the upper world. This being where you want to enter.

What does entry mean? In what kind of relationships with people do we want to enter? This is our mission that is to be solved between us.

And your friends found here, just as you have been blessed with love between you, so you will continue and will not separate. This will be to that moment when the Creator will rejoice with you and will be revealed among you. He will reveal the world according to you, and thanks to you, peace will be revealed in the world. As it is said, (Psalms 122:8) “For the sake of my brethren and companions, I shall now speak of peace in you.”

All this happens solely and only within the group and not in any other place. And to the rest of the people we disseminate gradually, with soft steps, treating them with “kit gloves,” because only a few people would truly stand up for the idea of love, friendship, and unity.

Therefore Rabash writes for us: Ultimately the people will be united under one leader who will stand with them against everything that comes against them. And this is what we need to understand very clearly, not to be afraid of anyone and to go forward. This is our idea, this is our goal, and this is our faith! Whoever doesn’t like this can leave. We aren’t harming anyone; we want unity and love of the other according to the global laws of nature upon which our method is based. We are not pursuing any other goal.

Without a doubt these are strong people, with a spirit that is as strong as steel, who will not be moved even a single step backward. These are first-class warriors who understand the meaning of creation and how to act to the degree of their advancement.

And nothing more is needed. We always get as much as is needed in order to do the right action at that moment, and if we do more, we might do the wrong thing. Like a little child that they let play with blocks but not something like an electric screwdriver, as this is not for him. It’s the same thing here; there is nothing to blame the Creator for, for not giving us the tools for our development. He gives them precisely to the degree that we will not err and will not harm ourselves and others.

And they have only one mission, to win in the sacred war for the sake of the Creator. This is to say, to build relationships between us like these (instead of hatred, love), where the Upper Light illuminates us and brings us victory, so, the Creator is the one who fights. We prepare the ground. Therefore all of our life, all of our existence is called “preparation,” and the Creator is the one who will finish it.

Rav Kook, the great Kabbalist, the first Chief Rabbi of the land of Israel, a member of the same generation as Baal HaSulam, (they were very familiar with each other), writes: Our soul is great. It is strong and mighty, it shatters an iron wall, it explodes mountains and hills. It is broader than infinite space, it is impossible to shrink it, it must spread over all those millions of our Israeli souls on all their levels, in all of the cities where they are found, and in all the depths into which they have descended, our soul is extended towards all, all of them, embracing them all, all will be revived and encouraged.

This is essentially that aspiration towards which we turn, the “spiritual commando.”

The main thing is to understand that at each and every moment I’m given exactly what I need in order to advance to my next level. And then I only need to invest my small efforts in order to unite with the others over the background of all of those various problems or circumstances in which I am found. Everything is found in our hands and we lack nothing other than mutual support.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 6

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Question: What does a person have to go through so he will want to enter the spiritual world?

Answer: It is very simple, he has to feel great spiritual sorrow that he is in exile in Egypt. It isn’t by chance that Abraham asked the Creator: “How will I know that I will inherit it?” In other words, how will we receive a spiritual desire? After all, “land” stands for a desire and the “Land of Israel” that Abraham asks about is a spiritual desire that is totally in the intention of in order to bestow.

So how can we advance towards it? I have no desire for it, no inner means or external ones.

The Creator’s answer to this is: Go in search for people like you. Start connecting, make the effort, teach them how to live together in one tent. And when you are truly connected, then you will feel that the connection between you is the reason for all your troubles.

But don’t abandon it, continue to connect more strongly. You will feel that it is awful, that it is Egypt where the ego, Pharaoh, dominates your connection. You will go through seven years of satiation and seven years of deficiency. First everything will be fine but then your self -love will grab you by the neck and strangle you; you will not be able to go on, not internally or externally. You will feel that you are parched and will grab your throat: “Four hundred years! How will we hold on in this state? ”

So I am preparing the ego for you in such a way that it will force you to come out of Egypt. If you do your best to be more strongly connected, I will certainly help you.

It is by trying to be connected that you will discover the inner depth of your ego to such an extent that “the children of Israel cried out from the work,” because of the fact that you cannot connect. The more you exert yourself, the greater inner and external troubles you will have. You will not be able to bear it until you cry out only for one thing: just to come out, to leave your own nature. “Better death than such a life.”

Then, when you want a new life that is totally opposite from your nature, you will discover it and not before that. It is because your vessel, your desire, has to be whole. The indication for that is your readiness to jump into the sea.

In addition, you will be ready for the mutual guarantee, which is even worse for the ego. The mutual guarantee means giving your soul to others. Death is closing the account, while mutual guarantee means that I sell myself to everyone in my feelings and my mind, to all those who I cannot stand.

Thus we escape from Egypt since we discover how much we hate one another. This maximum discovery of evil leaves us no other choice.

Abraham understood all this from his great experience. He understood the Creator’s answer, “Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,” which means that we have to feel the exile. Don’t think that the transition to spirituality is immediate. No, you have to be equipped with a very strong desire so that this desire will open up the gate of redemption for you.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/02/13, “Inheritance of the Land”

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We shouldn’t just teach a person good manners but really need to change his nature. Otherwise the story about the cats that were trained to be waiters and wear a suit will repeat itself. According to the Hassidic fable, the moment the cats saw the mice, they threw the trays they were carrying and chased them.

This means that we can teach a person to behave politely, but the moment a certain pleasure shines for him, he will throw away everything you have taught him and run away. We have to change a person’s nature! Therefore, we have to be very realistic and to understand whether we have the power to do so or not. If we don’t, then we shouldn’t bother people and should let them enjoy life as much as they can: at a bar with friends having a glass of beer or at a football field munching a snack.

The point is whether you intend to correct the world with the Light or whether you are just wasting people’s time with your ideas. In order to have the Light that Reforms you need to be arranged as a spiritual vessel, a vessel called mutual guarantee. This is what you should take care of first of all since otherwise there is no point going out to the public.

If we go out to the public equipped with the force of the Light, it means that we enable the Creator to fight in our place. After all, what can we do by ourselves? We have already found out from our experience that the Creator shatters to pieces all the attempts people make to establish a welfare society by themselves. We are yet to see in the near future how the American economy will collapse and totally disintegrate and the tremendous effect it will have on the whole world.

It’s time for the Light to operate! Without the Light everything will fall to pieces. Once there was a big ego that held the grains of sand together and we could build this whole world like kids who build sand castles on the beach. But today this connection is gone, the ego has disappeared and it doesn’t hold the grains of sand together anymore. It has no fuel left, no filling that can nourish it.

What can you do with a person who doesn’t want anything and is ready to spend the rest of his life living with his mother, who doesn’t want to work, and who sat the age of 20 dreams about a small allowance in order to survive somehow. The ego isn’t working today since it sees no benefit in it. So from what can we build something? We see that everything is falling apart and the crisis is everywhere, in every part of the world. Strong nations such as Syria are so badly destroyed that it will take 30-50 years to rebuild it, if at all.

Flourishing countries are becoming deserts since the Light has to come and revive the vessels now. This depends only on you! So you will have to come out to the world and bring them the method. If you don’t bring them the method that has to go through you, everyone will blame you and feel that you are responsible for all the problems in the world and they will demand it from you. It’s a serious situation. You cannot just live the day, everything can turn upside down in a moment.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/01/13, Shamati #38 “The Fear of God Is His Treasure”

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Question: Goals promoted in the outer environment influence me much more strongly than the goal that is set by the Kabbalist and what the group tries to convey to me. What can be done with this contradiction?

Answer: I have a purpose for which I live. If not for that, I would be living the life of a “beast,” I exist because I cannot die and intermittently I satisfying myself with “animal feed.”

But no, I have a goal in life, and I need to be locked onto this with the help of the group, arranging everything so I aim only for this goal. And all the rest of my activities are done according to my life’s goal.

And the goal of life is the revelation of the Creator, which is adherence with Him. This goal is attained through the principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” by means of connection in a group. And I must be attracted only to this and adhere to this alone.

In fact, we are talking about the construction of the spiritual Partzufim that are “inserted” one within the other. The core of everything is the purpose of life. To reach it I need the group. To strengthen the group, dissemination is needed. And therefore I need the entire world or the “nations of the world.”

But the main thing for me is the goal of life, while all others are the essential components required to attain it. And if not for the goal, I would not resort to them. I do and use only what helps me on the way to the goal.

According to this, from the group I need only what is good for attaining the goal, and therefore the entire group must realize the goal for me. Therefore it is said, “He chooses a better environment all the time,” I change the group all of the time and take from it things that are required for me to attain the goal.

The process is dynamic: The dissemination is changing all the time according to what we need for strengthening the group in order to find the shared power in its center and to discover the Creator. But in order to discover the Creator in the center of the group through the power of the guarantee within the group and through the right dissemination, I need to go out to the wider world, to receive deficiencies, obligations, fears, and anxieties from people so that they will push me and obligate me to act. Then I will reach the right demand, and then I discover the Creator.

All of these components are needed on the way except from the external world as it is, the dissemination that we do is enough. We have three levels: the Creator in the center of the group, the group itself with a guarantee and I’m in the group, and dissemination. This is the right agreement that is familiar to us: the lower, the upper, and the upper upper; or interior, middle, and exterior.

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Question: What are “Psalms?”

Answer: Psalms (Tehillim in Hebrew) is a book that gives a person a spiritual mood.

They were written by King David who symbolizes Malchut, the lowest and the widest part of the Kli (vessel), which includes practically everything. This was his spiritual attainment. And so his songs, in which he praises the Creator, are accepted by all nations of the world. Everyone reads them.

In the original Psalms texts there are signs (not notes), which show how to sing them. But you can sing them in your own way, it’s not a problem.
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From the Convention in St. Petersburg 7/12/13, Lesson 4

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