We can influence our emotional states and even the spiritual ones by corporeal actions. Everything is based on this world and stems from it, from this actual earth. This is actually what can help us determine our spiritual states. First everything is revealed on the lowest level, and then I gradually penetrate deeper into the earth into the foundations, into the desire.

As the desire is gradually revealed and we can penetrate more deeply into the earth, we get a chance to turn the desire into bestowal and to raise it higher upward. Thus the earth (Adamah in Hebrew) becomes Adam, which resembles, Domeh, the Creator.

So we have to respect our corporeal actions and value their influence on us. We see to what extent we depend on different forms, pictures, and rumors. It takes special skills to use them correctly and, in fact, this is what we have to teach humanity. Everything that is above the earth, above this world, is part of our work. We perform the work of this world, on this level, in the desire to receive together with the public, and our AHP is always in them.

Thus we work mutually by learning how to be in contact with the public and the public learns from us how to summon an inner change and get closer to one another by simple corporeal actions. The variety of actions that we perform in order to bring people closer is called integral education. For us the same thing turns into the wisdom of Kabbalah on our level and not in the corporeal earth, in the common corporeal desire, but above it, in our vessels, in GE, in which vessels, Lights, Partzufim, and couplings operate and the Light is conveyed to the whole system.

This is how we have to work with all of humanity. People begin to work in their own desire while we raise their exertion to the spiritual levels. It is then that we reveal how what seems as trivial, egoistic, simple work on the lower levels becomes great work when it goes through this huge amplifier, through the whole spiritual ladder.

An example for that is Malchut, which is corrected by being incorporated in Zeir Anpin, in its own 60 Sefirot HGT NHY, and by this common work they rise together up to the level of Arich Anpin, as they grow 600,000 times bigger. By that we should understand that it is the slightest work of the public that summons the most powerful and most important response from above.
[116208]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/13, Writings of  Baal HaSulam

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The world is divided into two parts with regard to spiritual ascent. One part is people in whom the point in the heart has already awakened (the yellow part in the drawing), and so they feel a yearning for spiritual ascent.

They are interested in the meaning of life, in the desire to attain their source directly.

These people come to us. Some remain with us and some leave and return after a while.

Both are constantly shaken since without that, they cannot advance.

Just like a pump that pumps air from one place to another, just like a piston in a car, so do we advance in our movement forward, we are going back and forth, back and forth.

This doesn’t mean that we are going anywhere. We move a bit higher and a bit lower as we rise higher and higher.

Thus, we constantly move forward, we “scoop” up the ego from below, raise it, and correct it; scoop even deeper, raise and correct it. Thus, we advance gradually, as in a spiral, but this spiral gradually widens up and down, up and down.

A person who doesn’t descend has nothing to bring up; as we study in the wisdom of Kabbalah, there has been a shattering of the desire of the created being, and all the desires have dispersed in what are called the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, including our world.

So, all the people who have a point in the heart (Malchut of Atzilut) must descend and raise the vessel, and then descend again and bring up an even bigger vessel once again, and thus repeat this action over and over again.

All this is all our Kelim (vessels), our desires. So, until the end of correction (complete Gmar Tikkun), there always will be the movement downward that begins and stops alternately and gradually returns to the place where the uncorrected Kelim (vessels) are, which means that there always will be a minus opposite the plus.

Thus, we draw the desires. We raise them up and correct them. We correct most of the desires that are below, without even knowing it.

Different changes occur in every person in the world, and we constantly are busy with correction.

All the changes, everything that takes place in this world and in every person happens only thanks to the descent downward and the ascent upward, a decent and an ascent.

Therefore, all the people in the world unconsciously work for the correction, whether they want to or not.

We are working consciously since we have the point in the heart that already belongs to the upper vessel. When we exit it, we begin our rounds down and up, down and up, constantly, like a spiral.

There is a great difference between the conscious work and the unconscious work. After all, those who work unconsciously experience pain. They are pushed forward by pressure from behind and don’t feel that they are advancing. They simply must move under the influence of different circumstances in life, the pain and the suffering.

We don’t. We try to do this consciously and much more effectively. After all, we try to add the positive force that will push us from the start to this negative vector, beyond the sufferings that push us from below like they push everyone else.

In order to advance with the help of the positive force, we must connect in a group. Besides, we need to study together and create in advance all the conditions in the group that exist in the upper world.

The group regulations, all the group laws, are the laws of the upper world that we are trying to fulfill at least to some extent while still in our egoism. We understand that it is all a game.

We only act as if we love one another and yearn for each other, for unity and connection. We play a game, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Some people say, “If this isn’t true, I will not do it.” This is wrong. Look at kids. Playing is a very serious thing for them. When I try to form the spiritual world in my contact with others, it is a very serious matter.

To the extent that I yearn for that, I develop a new vector in me (the red arrow on the drawing), and begin to feel the attraction forward, not under the pressure from behind. I don’t wait for different circumstances to push me such as the crisis that pushes the world forward and like different personal problems that push each of us. I am equipped with the group’s power and it draws upon itself a great Light from above.

This great Light actually creates one spiritual structure of us, and, this time, it is real. When we all become one, we become equal to the Light since it is also one.

The Light enters us according to the connection of the attributes, the equivalence of form, and we receive the revelation of the upper world, the next state, the next level, the next dimension. This is the difference between the people who receive the desire to advance by themselves and the rest of humanity.

The first part (the part in yellow in figure 1) is us, the people with the point in the heart, while the other part (the lower) is the rest of the world.

These days, the interdependence of these two parts is revealed since the second part has unconsciously drawn into it and thus, unconsciously corrected many of its desires throughout human history.

People without a “point in the heart” have been through many different states throughout history and thus have reached the point where they connect to us today. We receive a movement upward, a pull upward, and they are very close to us, around us, and we are all in a crisis together. This is exactly the same crisis, the crisis of the absence of the Creator, the absence of the revelation of the Upper Providence. However, for us, this deficiency of the Upper Providence is a serious matter, and we are drawn forward, wanting to discover Him. For them, however, it is a very unpleasant push from behind since we see what condition the world is in today.

This is exactly the unique chance for all the people who feel the attraction toward the goal of creation, to the revelation of the Light in the vessel. Their advantage is that, if they work for the correction of the part of the world that has no connection with the Light, they will get the chance to come closer quickly to the Light since the Light passes through them to others.

In what way is each of us special? What special thing have we done in life? What special attributes do we have? There is nothing special about us, nor about me. We have received a point in the heart, a desire to reveal the Upper Light, as a precondition, as a down payment. If we work for the rest of humanity, the Upper Light certainly will be revealed to us so it will pass through us to all of humanity.

Thus, we can understand what the conditions are: “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and “as one man in one heart,” reaching the connection between us, and so on. These are the exact conditions for the revelation of the Light, for the correction of the vessels, but it is expressed in a different language.

Kabbalists in previous generations have adapted the wisdom of Kabbalah to their correction and described it in their books in order to prepare it for us so that we will be able to use it widely everywhere. Thus, their writings are all meant for us since in all the previous generations there were only a few Kabbalists, actually only a few dozen. The Ari, for example, a great Kabbalist of the 16^th century, had only six or seven students. Later, in Padua, Italy, there was another great Kabbalist, Ramchal, who also had only a few students.

Today, thousands all over the world are interested in the wisdom of Kabbalah and they need it since, without it, their life is merely a corporeal life. In fact, I didn’t think there would be so many people who study Kabbalah, although a small group of ten to twenty people in relation to all of humanity.

Kabbalah is the wisdom of drawing the Light upon ourselves. In order to do that, we must learn the structure of the upper world and how all its parts are arranged, how the egoistic desires rise to the correction of Malchut of Atzilut and how they incorporate and later rise to the Partzufim of YESHSUT, Abba ve Ima, Arich Anpin, Atik, and thus all the way to the world of Ein Sof.

However, it is for us. We need the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to draw the Upper Light, and mutually work with it, turn to it, and receive from it.

The masses don’t need the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to receive the Upper Light since they don’t work mutually with the Light, but they still must unite. They must understand that it is in a state of unity that they will get rid of all their problems that pressure them on all sides. They only need to know one thing: We will get rid of all our problems, of all the negative states (-) if we are united.

The wisdom that is meant for the masses is called integral education. It speaks about the need for unity so that the force that neutralizes all the negative effects will be revealed in it. Therefore, the masses also need a group, but a group of a different status, a different form, a different style, a different yearning—simply, unity of the people.

This will happen when they understand that, if they unite, they will feel better, and all the different negative effects will disappear. This is the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and integral education.

On the whole, these are two parts of the same wisdom of unity of all the people on earth; they speak about the same thing. Only the people who can draw the Upper Light and mutually work with it because they have a point in the heart can explain the structure, the mutual work, the upper world, the levels by which their demand for the Light rises and the Light descends. They need this in order to spur the Upper Light upon themselves.

Others don’t need that. They simply need to know that it is only by yearning for unity that they will acquire peace and a good life. This is what they feel in their desires. Eventually, both will reach the same state, as all the desires that are under the Parsa rise, which means that they are incorporated in the Light that is above the Parsa (figure 2).

This is our future existence, our next dimension, the upper world. Humanity thus is divided into two parts, and each part has its own method of connection.

For one part, it is the method of unity that increases the yearning upward in order to draw the Upper Light and clearly discover the Upper Light, the Creator. The other part of humanity that simply yearns for a better life and to escape sufferings should be given a method of unity that it can fulfill so that the two parts will reach one whole.

So, unity, accepting the integral method and fulfilling it, is very important for the world today. We must understand how much humanity needs it and disseminate it, the highlights of the parts of the wisdom of Kabbalah that are suitable for the masses. We must teach them the same way that we teach children. After all, we don’t teach children deep wisdom, but by bringing them examples, we show them what is good for them to the extent that they can understand it and use it.

The method of the unity of creation is meant for the Creator to be revealed in it. He will be revealed in masses through us.

It is through us (red arrows in figure 1) that the Upper Light will be conveyed to them. This is what the “Preface to The Book of Zohar” tells us.

The dissemination of the integral method is also necessary in Europe, in a continent that has been through so much tension since it is more developed than other parts of the world, and the pressure of the multilateral crisis is so seriously felt in it.

If we can correct the crisis here and somehow promote the wisdom of human unity in a way that is suitable for the masses, which means in the form of the integral education and integral cooperation, it, first of all, will help us advance.

Thus, we will bring the Creator great contentment since we correct His shattered vessels, and the One who is the goal of creation can be revealed in these corrected vessels. So, the integral method is very important for everyone. We develop it for children, adults, and the elderly. We give courses and hold workshops and different events for the general public. We think that it is also very important for us since, if we don’t engage in it, we, Bnei Baruch, will not be allowed to advance since we have only received it as a down payment on condition that we think about the rest of the world.
[104591]
From the 2^nd Lesson of the European Convention In Germany 3/22/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: …by nature, the power to work is not equal with each and every person. One person in the society labors in one hour of work, due to his weakness, much more than his friend who works two hours or more.

And there is also a psychological matter here, because he who is very lazy by nature exhausts himself in one hour more than his friend in two hours or more. And according to the perspective of the evident truth, we should not compel one part of society to labor more than the other part for the fulfillment of the needs of their lives. In fact, the naturally strong and nimble in society benefit from the labor of others and exploit them maliciously against the attribute of truth, because they labor very little compared to the weak and the lazy in society.

Can we evaluate people from the angle of truth or in accordance with the category of veracity? By itself, it is a wonderful and true category. It attests to a very simple thing: One deserves as much as one gives, meaning that everyone must be valued correctly and justly based on one’s contribution to the general structure. It is a law of nature. We can design numerous other regulations, but in reality it is exactly so.

Our rewards equal our efforts, although exertions should not be assessed through absolute numbers. Rather, they must be calculated by using relative specific measures. For example, it is extremely hard for me to lift a ten-kilogram weight and carry it for ten kilometers. However, for another person, it would be just an easy stroll. He won’t even notice this weight. I would need to rest for a couple of hours to replenish the energy I lost and eat something nourishing, whereas the other person wouldn’t be tired at all. On the contrary, he would feel much better than before.

Hence, it means that we simply cannot use the category of truth and do not have any criteria to make accurate calculations here. So, is it possible to lead a truthful life in our society?

You won’t find this problem in inanimate, vegetative or animate nature. There, everything exists in accordance with the attribute of truth, although we don’t notice it since we do not comprehend the entire picture. Each species occupies a niche of its own. All are connected; all are driven by natural instincts. Therefore, everything is correct.

We don’t know what it means to be governed by veracity since, at the speaking level, nature lets us go, releases the reins, abandons us, and allows us to establish relationships with it on our own—not as individuals, but rather as a society. Integration and social relationships are, in fact, the major problems we are facing at this time.

Previously, when humanity was still at a primitive stage of formation, the world was as one flock, as one family. Thus, it didn’t require any particular clarifications. At that time, everyone’s share was defined by a family, a tribal sense of community, and corresponded to the laws of nature.

However, when liaisons among humans lost its family basis and transitioned into a professional services exchange field—when people stopped being just parts of their families, tribes, clans, and villages, when they began to develop on their own—the problem emerged. After all, now people compare themselves to others and tend to give their neighbors as little as they can and, at the same time, receive as much as possible. We and the people around us are no longer a unified system. This explains why we have no clue as to how to get along with each other. The category of truth among us is vague, and that’s why we don’t sense or understand each other.

“I worked on your boot for a whole week,” the cobbler says.

How do I know if he is lying to me or if it really takes that guy so much time and effort to mend my shoe? Perhaps, is he simply unprofessional? A month ago, in another shop, it took them only one day to repair a mate to the same boot, and they charged me pennies. Now, I am paying four times more and had to wait an entire week!

To make a long story short, when we go beyond the boundaries of natural communities, we deal with unresolved problems. We are unable to stick to the category of truth and need additional criteria to support it. After all, if it falls it would cause chaos in society. That’s why we make “crutches”: various social programs, national insurance, hospital and pension funds, free education, and so forth. We don’t rely on our ability to implement the category of truth into life since we know that people will do nothing about it. Instead, our countries take over to compensate for it, and allow us to stay aloft and float not too far from unattainable shores that we cannot yet reach.

We have no ability to reach the shore since we traded family ties for commercial relationships that are built on the principles of mutual lies. Our society is in a huge conflict with this category: the attribute of truth. By not obeying it, we suffer and don’t know what to do next. By obeying it, we still acknowledge that there is something false in it.

This situation instigates an eternal confrontation between the masses and the elites. According to the category of truth, everyone is equal, and yet, the elites take away a huge portion of the wealth, leaving the masses poor. All rotates around the original problem.

Is there a way out? Can we establish genuine criteria? For that, we must feel others as we feel ourselves. The category of truth simply cannot be grounded on anything less than that. We must sense how intense other people’s exertions are and compare them with our own efforts. This comparison will let us replenish our relationships.

If we could measure how much each of us has received from nature—how healthy one is, how capable of doing various types of work—and what the real outcome of our efforts is exactly, then, possibly, we would distribute resources in a more correct way. However, in reality, our calculations always are wrong, and we never will distribute wealth fairly, honestly, and correctly because of the Creator’s interference. He deliberately spoils everything so that we come to Him since He is the truth!

Subsequently, the problem is not a just or merit-based distribution, but rather our altruistic intention to bestow. Any calculations are right only on the condition that we act solely to establish a connection with the Creator. Only then can we distribute things in accordance with the category of truth.

This explains why the “socialist experiment” failed in Russia. Its organizers did not hold the key: a connection with the Upper Light. Although they were given a chance, in the end, the upper governance turned it into a negative example.

[110960]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: This is the key to understand the weakness of world-reformers throughout the generations. They regarded man as a machine that is not operating properly and needs mending, meaning to remove the corrupted parts and replace them with good ones…

But because the Creator meticulously watches over all the elements in His Creation, not letting anyone destroy a single thing in His Domain but only reform it and make it useful and good, all the reformers of the above-mentioned kind will vanish from the face of the earth, and evil inclinations will not vanish. They live on and count the degrees that they must still traverse until they complete their ripening.

Each time, world-reformers repeatedly commit a big mistake by trying to act independently, without seeking the help of the Light. As a result, everyone suffers, including them.

The world crisis started five years ago and these bright people constantly invent recipes for how to fight it. Psychologists, politicians, economists, and financial specialists, everyone participates in this noble task, and all of them are confident that they are doing the right thing. These world-reformers are sitting everywhere. They discuss things in governments, teach children at schools, and try to improve family relations. Where do they get the self-assurance that they are capable of changing things for the better?

We must move with the Light. In the morning, leaving the house, we should say, “If not for me, then who,” as if there were no upper force and that the day ahead of us depends exclusively on us. In the evening, when we come back home, we must say, “Only because of the upper force did I manage to do what I have achieved today.”

In our desire to correct the world, do we really act in a way that the Creator and the creation complement each other? Do we provide their fitting together? Do we orient all our efforts toward opening the pathway for the Light that will correct everything?

Question: This approach seems totally mystical. Can we suggest that people stay at home and do nothing, just asking the Light to descend and correct them? Are you serious?

Answer: You are right. That’s why it is said, “If not me, then who?” Let’s say that my car broke down. Should I invite friends to pray in the garage? Should I resolve any problem this way? Of course not.

On the other hand, how can we achieve a genuine correction instead of faking it? We see that without spiritual actions, our exertions only make this world a worse place instead of making it better. Yes, we still can find solutions for many problems, but we don’t realize that each detail is a part of the entire system. One way or another, everything that is not corrected by the Light will not work. It only exposes and demonstrates the egoism that is hidden in our attitude and obligates us to correct our outlook. Only when we can cope with it will we elicit correction, but in a new and true way.

Question: How can we explain this to others within the framework of integral education?

Answer: Beyond anything else, integral education is a part of the wisdom of Kabbalah. We are talking about various levels of the same teaching that explains the methodology of the world correction with the help of the Light that Reforms. We open the pathway for the Light, and It corrects us and the entire society. The goal always remains the same: to establish a good connection among us, to reach unanimity and harmony that correspond to the Light. Then, the Light will descend and correct us.

You can give the Light various names: the power of the group, collective intelligence, the vigor of integral unity. The essence remains the same. We are equal, we are together as one man in one heart, and the Surrounding Light influences all of us no matter if we teach others the methodology of integral education or just study it.

We totally were dissapointed in this world and found the wisdom of Kabbalah. However, other people also deal with the same problems. They also want to live better lives. The beautiful words that we use only mask a common, general aspiration to happiness.

Question: Does it mean that the definition of happiness varies? For us, happiness means one thing. For others, it signifies something else.

Answer: When you say that, for you, the bliss is in bestowal, it’s just words. Your desires keep you where you are. You simply tolerate a message that is disgusting to your egoism. We must pass the message about bestowal and unity further on, although we should be doing it in a much milder form. We should make it look like we are sharing the methodology of establishing good relationships with others that later will allow everyone to succeed.

In fact, the main obstacle on our way to happiness is happiness itself. There are no external monsters that prevent us from being happy. The monster is inside us. That’s why we keep talking about establishing a good and kind attitude toward each other. This is a universal remedy. It doesn’t depend on the level of our demands. By uniting our interests, goals, and general problems, by sharing a common worldview, each acquires something that one wants irrespective of what names they use to identify their unity.

So, we offer them a unified and effective solution.

Later, when they achieve unity, people will experience new psychological phenomena. They will sense internal energy and the power of their interconnection. They will have a better feeling of each other. Fine threads between them will grow stronger, the air will become thicker, clear responses to various actions and thoughts will appear, and everyone will begin working with the entire system, regardless of whether they realize it or not. Even now, we attempt to use this structure correctly. However, when we unite, this system finally will acquire realistic features and will surface from the fog.

In the end, does it really matter what exactly made people unite? The reasons that will make unity acquire a new enhanced value in everyone’s eyes will vary. What matters is that unity will become much more important than anything else. Behind multiple threads and powers, people will recognize a single force of love and bestowal. Each of us can name it differently: health, family values, wellbeing, and so forth. In fact, all these words are the names of the Creator.

Question: So, does it mean that the Creator is a reaction or an inspiration that we feel when we are connected with others?

Answer: Yes, you could say so. All that we feel within a desire is called the Creator.

Question: Do I retain this inspiration constantly?

Answer: When you advance, you find out that the general network and the force that is hidden in it are not connected with the tool that brought you to it. The instrument that pushed you to pursue the goal is illusory and deceptive.

Question: Can we compare it with electricity that we cannot identify directly, but rather, detect it because we see its effects if we are trained to do so? Otherwise, the electric circuit exists only potentially.

Answer: Yes, it is true. Today, people do not allow an electric current to flow and that’s why they don’t see it.
[109784]
From the 4^th part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We are already starting to get acquainted with the states of spiritual work, although it is difficult to agree with them and get used to them. Every time we find it difficult to justify them because spiritual states come as if a person is born again. All of a sudden something happens to him and he no longer recognizes himself, is not familiar with the world in which he exists, does not understand his reactions, the influences that prevent or help him, enemies and friends.

A person gets confused. He wants to learn this new inner reality in which he finds himself, but cannot. It’s as if he got a new internal program and thus is not familiar with himself and with the world. All the reactions become new and completely unknown. Having found himself in a new world, he loses the previous conviction, the old attitude to everything.

We need to get used to this! However, it’s impossible to get used to it because every time you get into a completely new state. And the further a person advances, the more different the states are, alternating one after the other. Despite the increasing rate of change, the states themselves are becoming more contrasted and separated from each other.

The state that occurred only a day or two ago can be very different from the one today, and the person feels terribly confused and loses stability in the world, as if he completely disappears. His states become increasingly opposite and the speed with which they replace each other is growing. With every change in state there comes a time when a person does not understand what is happening, even though he already has great previous experience.

When a new state comes, it’s so different from the previous one that it erases everything that was in the past. A person in the next state is not familiar with anything, and thus he does not understand what is happening to him; it’s as if this happens for the first time. And in fact, this state does occur for the first time as a new information gene (Reshimo), a new reality is revealed.

It’s impossible to explain this to strangers because they will not understand. They do not understand how this person can suddenly know nothing and become confused. How is it possible that a great Kabbalist suddenly cannot solve, understand, and feel even such simple things that are available to an ordinary person? But this is our life, and so we gain, degree by degree, the spiritual ladder.

The main thing is to love these states and to be aware that they increasingly bring us closer to an understanding of the Creator, to His likeness. There is no better state than when a person feels confusion, darkness, helplessness, knowing that in the vessels with which he will soon be able to work, he will find the quality of bestowal, meaning, a more correct attitude to the state is revealed.

In fact, it’s in this way that concealment is taken from him. Once in my childhood I read a story about horses transporting carts underground in coalmines. They never went up and therefore were not used to sunlight. So, when they were old and no longer able to work, before emerging from the mine, a few bags were put on their heads. On the surface, the bags were gradually removed: first one, and after awhile, another, so the horse would become used to the light gradually.

Here we are in the same situation. Each time when our state changes, it’s as if another bag is removed. And it will continue until we get accustomed to the real Light.

If a person understands that the work is done on him so that he would become accustomed to the Light and could see the Creator and His actions in his world, then he accepts this work with gratitude. He understands that this work in the twilight, in the dark, is very valuable because it creates the new tools of perception in him for the discovery of the true spiritual world. All this work is called carrying out a commandment, and if a person is happy about this, this is called the joy of commandment.
[116174]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/13

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Question: How can we create a supportive atmosphere in the global group that will enable each one to feel that he belongs to the whole?

Answer: First, the friends must understand that they cannot advance without an environment. These are not just nice words that you can hear wherever collective efforts are needed. No, it is about surviving or perishing.

From the spiritual perspective, I am a zero. I open a spiritual account only if I am incorporated in the group and receive the vitality of the friends through them. There is no other way. The group is the umbilical cord that ties you with the Partzuf AVI within the level of the Creator.

Question: What if a friend is repulsed by the group?

Answer: It is the natural work of the ego. It is revealed precisely when we want to get closer to one another and we encounter repulsion. Repulsion from the desire to get closer is called ego.

However, when we don’t try to get closer, the ego is not revealed. The feeling of repulsion in this world only is called ego, but, in fact, it isn’t the ego that we must correct since it isn’t against the Creator. It isn’t revealed to me against the real connection.

The real ego is the force that stands in my way of connecting with the friends. I want it, but the Creator trips me and says, “No, I will not give it to you. Here, I demand a special action from you that is called faith above reason, a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. If you want to overcome your ego, go ahead. You must demand the Light that Reforms in order to do so.”

Then, having no choice, I cry out. Thus, the Creator forces me to turn to Him in order to receive the Light, in order to think about the attribute of bestowal.
[116092]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Get Down To Pure Egoism

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: …he who alters even a single law harms and damages the purposeful aim that the Creator has set, and will therefore be punished by nature … it is best for us to meet halfway and accept the words of the Kabbalists that HaTeva (the nature) has the same numerical value (in Hebrew) as Elokim (God)—eighty-six. Then, I will be able to call the laws of God “nature’s Mitzvot (commandments),” or vice-versa, for they are one and the same…

Question: Lately, I took a course on “watchful driving.” Among other things, I was told about traffic signs that alert drivers of nearby railway tracks. If one ignores them, one can get hit by a train. However, there are no traffic signs on our roads of life, and we get “hit by trains” more than once. It’s about the laws of providence that we are supposed to sense inside us. Studying them requires time. Until we learn them, we will be hit by many “trains.” Why didn’t nature place visible signs so that we could use them and explain their meaning to others?

Answer: Definitely, if we had traffic signs on our path, we would observe the traffic rules, or at least we would acknowledge that we violate the laws of providence. However, there are no signs and we don’t know what to expect. Why is it set up this way? Why is it that, only after going through multiple accidents, we eventually begin observing the rules?

To begin with, let me ask you a counter question: What makes you think that, in this world, we act differently? Here is an example: We vote for a law that prohibits talking on a cell phone when driving. When we violate this law, we lose driving privileges for three months. Why? It is because professionals in this field know that speaking on the phone while driving leads to multiple accidents and tragedies.

So, we can trace a similar pattern here. Our affliction grows until we reach a critical point. Only then do we create some sort of defense.

Previously, bridges were erected without parapets. Later, it was realized that people tend to fall from bridges. So, they began to build guardrails. It’s always like that. Any action of ours is elicited by pure necessity. Guardrails did not bring us pleasure. So, they were invented solely because of distresses that were caused by their absence on bridges and only after the necessity to build them became obvious.

Egoism pushes us to receive pleasure. Preventive and prophylactic measures do not fill us with delight. We want to cross the road where we feel like it. We choose to take something that doesn’t belong to us, we do not care that this action of ours is called “stealing.” This attitude results in having a multiplicity of various social systems: judicial, law enforcement, and so forth. In general, all of them are meant to temper our primordial egoism.

Today, a new developmental stage has begun. We must become acquainted with the Creator. How? If we continue feeling good, we never will begin a relationship with Him since experiencing pleasant sensations never pushes us forward. All we want is to enhance the good states we are in. Do we care from whom and why we receive pleasure? It’s enough for us to sense them. Nothing else bothers us since all we do is fulfill ourselves here and now.

However, as soon as we reveal the evil and realize that we cannot escape from it, we begin asking questions, and only afterward do we begin building guardrails or stepping on the brakes or doing something else to protect ourselves from trouble.

An egoistic desire to receive pleasure is our nature. This desire manifests itself diversely. It doesn’t allow us to protect or secure ourselves without giving us a visible reason for doing so. However, when it comes to receiving maximum pleasure, it doesn’t mind insuring us. Our attempts not to harm our neighbors still sit outside of this paradigm. They have nothing to do with bestowal as of yet, nor are they included in our initial plans. The delight we get is an enticement, a bribe. It shields our eyes and pushes us away from a correct way of thinking without even letting us realize it.

So, all of our assertions regarding the traffic signs are unfair. Your statement is correct only if you are not oriented toward the goal: attaining the Creator. It’s true only if we don’t study the system that He made for us so that we familiarize ourselves with the master who created it.

We must figure out exactly what He does with the help of the system He created and the ways He governs this system. It’s as if we swallow this system and let it settle inside us. Then, we begin following its laws. It continues working in us, but, from this point on, we watch it happen, analyze it, and control it.

This is what our free choice is about. By controlling the system, we constantly self-check if our actions correspond to what He would do. As it is written, “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.” This is the way we familiarize ourselves with the Creator and try to be similar to Him and even exceed Him a little. We run forward and try to predict His actions. By acting so, we learn both the back and the front side.

In general, all that we need for our self-correction will come to us in due time. The entire system is not only precise, but it’s absolute. It sends ideal portions to each and every one under all possible circumstances. If we received one gram less, we would feel it as an affliction that is not originated by love. If we received one gram more, this supplement wouldn’t come from love either, since it would deprive us of the freedom of choice.

We cannot justify His governance yet, but we need not justify it at the time. We should not try to be righteous as of yet. It is said that those who share other people’s affliction console them. Thus, they justify the Creator for their sufferings. After we finish our path, we’ll justify everything.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 08.28.13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace”

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We should clearly understand one thing: our success completely depends on the Creator and nobody else besides Him. “We are not the ones who will finish the job, but it’s not up to us to refuse it.” We must act applying maximum energy and at the same time staying confident that the result is solely in the Creator’s hands. We already know it very well. It has been proven dozens of times. We realize that we are playing a game the results of which are known beforehand, that everything comes from Him and that He is the One Who organizes everything with a divine “cunningness,” and that there is nothing at all we can do about it.

You can lie on the couch all day long and in the evening you’ll receive your salary as if you worked all day. However, we are obligated to accept the upper governance and work all day long. The same applies to our external dissemination. These two lines teach us the way that the spiritual realm is built: out of contradictory properties that look totally incompatible to our brain. It’s fine for now! Later, we’ll be given a different kind of mind.

Let’s hope that with each day we’ll need the Creator more and more. At the same time, we have to be cautious of weakening the other side of the coin and make sure that our own contribution in the process also has to expand day after day. Without it, we won’t have a need for the Creator. These two lines do not cancel or annul each other. If we manage to act so, we’ll accelerate creation of the first spiritual vessel.

We should apply our efforts as if we were “an ox under a yoke or a donkey to the load,” meaning that we should run faster and use our energy mechanically. As to our intentions, we should clearly realize that in every action of ours, the Creator is both in front of us and behind us, and that He “embraces us from the front and the back,” and that we work only together with Him.

Later, we’ll figure out that He works inside us also . Then, where are we in this picture? This is the point at which we start attaining a transcendent power, the spirit that dresses into everything around us. We understand that “There is none else besides Him” and that there is also a tiny point from which we look around and see that “There is none else besides Him.”

This particular point has nothing in it at all: It has neither volume nor width. It’s just a point that emerged “out of nothing” (Yesh Mi Ayin); it’s a point from which we observe that “There is none else besides Him.” Finally, we get to realize that the Light, the desires, and all states that we’ve been in throughout all of history, and in everything, there exists only one force, the Upper Force. “The Creator is the first and He is the last.” There is no other revelation that is greater than this one.

However, when we say that “There is none else besides Him,” it doesn’t mean that we don’t exist, since in order to make this statement, somebody has to be present in all places, in each and every property, in each of His actions, and then from that point, we have to decide (being on the opposite side) that in fact “There is none else besides Him.” By doing so, we completely merge with Him, meaning that we achieve cohesion and become equal to Him in all our actions, thoughts, programs, connections, etc.

It’s our duty to test everything there is in the Creator in order to comprehend that everything is about Him and finally arrive to a conclusion that ““There is none else besides Him.” All we have left is this one black point out of which we look around, but it’s a peculiar point from which the entire universe can be observed, from edge to edge, in all directions and ranges: the entire Malchut of the world of infinity.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/13, “Group and Distribution”

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Each and every action of ours should contain a vibrant appeal to the Creator. Any material activity that is not accompanied by intentions like: “Why am I doing this? Who am I interacting with together (with Him)? Why am I doing what I am doing (in order to reveal Him)?” Any action of ours that is not associated with clarifying these questions is completely useless.

If one prioritizes material actions and success above spiritual activities and attainment, one descends to the “ground” level instead of committing a spiritual deed. It’s a shame to waste time on such things. Our existence is not meant for it.

Does it mean that you approach others to tell them how wonderful it is to be together? Is it really your goal to organize a kibbutz or a collective farm? Not at all! You want to talk with them about unity and about an exceptional force that each of us contains inside because (from this point on, you should continue the dialog internally, in your thoughts) the power of unity will allow us to reveal the Creator in order to please Him.

You are obligated to continue this formula to the very end. We have to start with the Creator and conclude with the Creator. The Creator has to be in the beginning of our thoughts and He must be at the end; in the middle, there is our material world. It’s as if you start from state 1 of the world of infinity, go all the way down, from top to bottom, to this world, to state 2, and then return back to state 3, to the world of infinity at the end of correction.

Each of our actions is an implementation of the entire chain: from the world of infinity in the beginning of creation to the world of infinity at the end of creation. Repeat it to yourself as a mantra; it’s important that you do it until your heart begins feeling it. It’s as if you try to start up a dead engine; you try as many times as needed until it starts working.

Each time you do it using your material desire, which as of now doesn’t have anything in common with any kind of spiritual activity. You repeat it, as a child who doesn’t understand the meaning of words, until you start understanding. The Light impacts desires, clarifies and connects them until one begins feeling what one reiterates. Out of my own experience, I know that it works, although it requires lots of time.

However, there is nothing we can do about it, since the time, in fact, is just a chain of changes that we experience in our desires. Each time we go through a new correction. It’s a blessing that we have received a job that requires assistance of the upper force. Even if we artificially proclaim that we need the upper force, we can be assured that various troubles and enemies will not force us to understand how much we need the upper force.

We are the ones who define what route: the path of Light or the path of suffering. This is a very concrete choice: We either go one way or the other. The Creator wants us to connect with Him. If we obligate ourselves to do that with the help of a group and by keeping in mind the importance of the goal, then we’ll choose a positive and concise way. If not, then the “help against us” appears. At this time, we feel it on our skin. This is wonderful, since it’s help from above; it’s already a revelation of the upper governance.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/13

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It is said: “Don’t accept bribes, since bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.” Let’s say we happened to correct ourselves and became equal to others. Let’s say we even managed to reveal the Creator within our connection with friends. However, when we reach the next level, our egoism “jumps.” Our ego offers us “a bribe” by whispering into our ears: You are superior to others, you are stronger than them, you can do something that nobody else can do, and you are the sighted!

It’s important that we understand that at this time our egoism provides us with two kinds of fulfillment: wealth and sight, meaning a fulfillment of the heart (egoism) and a fulfillment of the mind. It’s as if we suddenly rise above our environment. To the extent of our elevation, we are granted the opportunity to “love our neighbors,” since “loving our neighbors” compensates for our elevation above them. If we reject the bribe, we won’t grow.

The ranges of “tools” we are using expand to wealth and knowledge. If we don’t work with these new tools, how will we grow? We must use them! At the same time, with the help of wealth and additional knowledge, we become obligated to love our neighbors. At this point, our neighbors become crucial to us. We should do everything in our power for them as we would care for our baby.

Question: So, does it mean that if one is allowed to make an enormous breakthrough in knowledge and acquires the ability to govern the masses, then one has to transform this knowledge to love?

Answer: It’s a tremendous work! It’s something that King David described in his Psalms. He was at war for his entire life. The power that was given to him, he covered by love. He fulfilled his mission towards his people differently, not as any other king. A king is the one who is the most loving; otherwise, he is not a king. It is called “Kings of Israel.” “The Kingdom” stands for Malchut.
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From Kab TVs “Mysteries of the Eternal Book,” 5/24/13

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