Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

If There Is No Ten

629.3Question: You said that we should not allow evil to develop. Is this the work that needs to be done to go through the four stages of correction?

Answer: The four stages of correction will take place in you automatically, each time in a different form.

There is no way you can approach them with your mind because, at the time when evil is revealed, you are in your feelings, and all your thoughts disappear. No common sense will help you; your feelings take over. Therefore it all depends only on the environment in which you are.

Understand that as soon as we move from degree to degree and evil is revealed, we are controlled from above! The only thing that can help you is the environment that you create in advance so that it serves as a damper, a brake, that absorbs some vibrations and shocks and gives you help and support. This is the ten in which you work.

If there is no ten, your progress will be very limited, very shallow, and only partially successful. You will still move forward because you exist within the vast collective world Kli, but it will not be the same. So take this into account.
[338654]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

Related Material:
The Importance of the Ten
Do Not Disconnect From The Ten
The Guest And The Host Meet Inside The Ten

Different Perception of the Sources

165Question: When I study and read sources myself, I do not understand anything at all. But now when you read them and we go through them together, they are perceived in a completely different way.

Answer: Of course. That is exactly why I am here. Without explanations you would not understand anything. Millions of people can read these sources and still understand nothing. Additionally, there is an internal, emotional, spiritual transmission from teacher to student.

However, your preliminary work with the sources is still beneficial because you familiarize yourself with them directly through your own feelings and perception.

Now you see how it can all be explained from the next degree. I explain things just one degree above where you currently are, no more, and I try not to overcomplicate it. On the contrary, I try to break it down for you and serve it like baby food on a spoon.

But even if you put in effort without understanding anything, that effort becomes the desire into which you later receive light, revelation, and understanding. So it is not in vain.

For example, before attending Rabash’s lessons, I used to read The Study of the Ten Sefirot and other sources. Questions would arise, and I would write them down and dig into them to develop some analytical ability that would allow me to absorb more from my teacher.

In other words, it is not about understanding, but being prepared to understand what the teacher will say. That you hear things differently from your teacher is a good thing. That is how it should be.

At the next degree, everything becomes simpler and simpler still. And the simplest of all is the simple upper light.
[338501]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

Related Material:
The Impact Of The Sources And Of The Right Environment
Reading A Kabbalistic Text
The Main Rule For Reading Kabbalistic Books

Retain the Source of What Is Happening within Oneself

537A person, having placed the Creator in his empty space, begins to attribute everything to Him. But he must elevate the Creator above all his sensations and awarenesses. By so doing, he places, as it were, the power of the Creator above himself.

It turns out that in every state, when he stops feeling that everything comes from the Creator, he renews His power in his perception, sensation, and thoughts—in everything. In this way he constantly corrects more and more of the new pictures of his life, until he fills everything that is manifested inside him as the world with its source, the Creator.

And the world is called Olam, from the words “elem ve ester,” that is, “hiding.” This is the veil in which we live and that hides the source, the Creator.

To the extent that I begin to relate everything that is happening to the Creator, I build a new system of perception of the universe, a new system of true reality.

That is, through all the images passing through me, I begin to perceive and feel contact only with the Creator. And all the other images of our world gradually disappear since they do not exist at all. Therefore the world is called neelam, disappearing, non-existent, because it is only an external picture that hides the Creator behind it.

In this way I gradually reveal Him. But this is realized in each of my states, when first of all I feel: “Oh! I completely forgot that all this is drawn to me by the Creator!” And secondly, the thought arises in me: “I forgot that the fact that I have just remembered about this has also been caused by the Creator.”

After all, what I think about this, what I perceive and feel in a certain way, how I react to the world itself created by the Creator, and to my idea of ​​​​Him, all this is built inside me by Him.

Where do I remain then? In fact I do not exist except for my specific efforts to retain, not the picture of everything that is happening, but its source, the Creator Himself within myself, who is the cause of everything that is happening.
[338505]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

Related Material:
Feel the Creator of the World
Starting Over the Acceptance of the Kingdom of Heaven
The World Is a Picture Created by the Creator

A Secret that You Hide from Yourself

258Comment: On one side the Creator provokes us, but on the other side I have to trust Him. There is a contradiction here.

My Response: The entire system of spiritual advancement is built on nothing but contradictions. Otherwise we would be unable to sense our real state.

In our world we exist only in one state, in egoism. We perceive everything only in relation to this state. We do not have any other scale except for greater egoism – smaller egoism, more pleasure – less pleasure.

We still do not understand what it means to be in the property of bestowal and to create a new system of scale within myself.

This is why we have such a hard time with this method called “hidden.” No one hides it; we just do not have the matching senses for it, and we do not have any ability to grasp it or to comprehend it.

Therefore Kabbalah is called “hidden wisdom,” or “secret wisdom.” But this is not a secret where someone conceals something from you. You are the one who conceals it from yourself by your one-sided properties.
[338336]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Related Material:
The Method of Revealing The Creator
Why Are We Living In This World?
Man Does Not Give Up

What Is a Corrected Ten?

528.01Question: You said that I should see the ten as corrected. What is a corrected ten?

Answer: I must envision the ten as absolutely complete, united, and merged into one.

The state of the individual elements of this system is one of mutual completion and such interconnection that there is nothing separating them, only complementing one another.

Within each of us, there is nothing except our initial point, which is distinct from others. Everything else that forms around this point exists solely to allow us to integrate with one another.

Spiritually, we represent Malchut, a black point, while all the other nine Sefirot are not me but my relationships with others. This is how I should envision a corrected ten: a state of total interconnection within one another.
[338881]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

Related Material:
A Kli Worthy of Correction
The Spiritual Ten
The Ten Is a Spiritual Structure

Prayer—The Inner Impulse of the Hearts

582.01Question: If prayer is not words but letters from the heart, why do we always compose a prayer at congresses?

What gives us a set of correct words? Does it mean that words are a consequence of our efforts?

Answer: At congresses we have exercises where we compose a prayer. What is this done for? We want the people in the tens to connect among themselves, to express their yearning for spirituality, relationships, and aspirations in two or three phrases.

That is, the words themselves do not matter. If people unite in these phrases and want to turn to the Creator and achieve something, then it does not matter what the words themselves say. This is where the inner urge of their hearts to unite with each other is at work.
[338877]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

Related Material:
To a Single Creator from a Single Ten
What Is Prayer?
Prayer Opens the Heart

Combine All Appeals to the Creator

937An appeal to the Creator must include an understanding of who we are today, what we represent, how we should ask, and what we should ask for. This is because our request is part of the realization of what we must do and what we must achieve.

The nature of the appeal depends on the level we are currently on. The higher the level we are on or aspire to reach, the greater our desire must be. This desire should be clearer, more conscious, and accordingly, we will receive a response.

It is said: “The Creator is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” This means that it is not enough to call upon the Creator in any manner; our request must include an understanding of our current state and the next one, the present and the future.

These states may be separated by only a short span of time. We simply refer to them as “today” and “tomorrow” because each state is described as a day. The difference lies in the fact that the desire to exit the current state and enter the next one must become an urgent plea from a person—a yearning to rise above oneself, above one’s current state, and reach the next, greater equivalence to the Creator. This means a greater degree of selflessness, a greater distancing from one’s ego, from one’s initial nature.

Each subsequent state represents greater separation from oneself, an acceptance of a different form of life—in thoughts and desires, in mind and heart.

Ultimately, all this manifests in an appeal to the Creator, which is called “prayer.” It is not simply a request to “make things better for me,” but a plea from the heart, even without words or proper phrases, formed in the heart as a necessary and true appeal.

This is how we must prepare for the congress, as, being together, our appeals to the Creator combine into one, whether we realize it or not. All the requests of all the people in the world ultimately reside within the Creator and merge into an appeal to Him.

However, if people remain at the degree of animal, they do not evoke any special reaction in the Creator, nor do they unite among themselves.

Our efforts combine only to the extent of purposeful action when we desire to influence the Creator.

This means uniting in our intentions, actions, thoughts, and desires, rising above our current state—each one above their own—and as if drawing within ourselves the image of the next state.
[338759]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

Related Material:
What Is a Common Prayer?
A Common Desire Is a Place for the Creator
Prayer from the Entire Universe

The Action of Two Forces

232.08There are only two forces at work in the universe.  The egoistic one is the one in which we exist now. It is artificial and imaginary, and in fact it does not exist because it is only a reflection of the Creator’s property, “There is none else besides Him.”

In order to determine that there is none else besides Him, there is something opposite, since creation is made in such a way that it can attain light only from darkness, good from bad, and so on. Otherwise we would not be able to feel a single effect, action, or property.
[338831]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”

Related Material:
Two Lines—Inner Contradiction
Between Two Lines
Two Forces Arising From One

Find The Right Form of Communication

945The work with Tens comes from Rabbi Shimon. According to Kabbalah, it began with Abraham, but nevertheless it received its main incarnation starting with the Ari when Kabbalah became a real practical science.

Rabash described it in great detail. Other Kabbalists had written about this before him. The Torah states everywhere that there must be unity between people, because only in unity can we bring together the broken soul of Adam.

Even two people are enough to begin to perceive spiritual states, because opposite you there must be another egoist like you, with the same goal as yours.

Our work is based only on finding a form of connection between ourselves that is convenient for us, similar to the Creator, and can begin to open up between us, and we will feel His approach in this.

The closer we get to each other in the Ten, the more we rise above selfishness and build a sandwich on two floors: hate at the bottom and love above it, or indifference at the bottom and at least some kind of connection at the top. And in this sandwich between the egoistic property and the property of bestowal, we reveal the Creator as the source of both properties.
[338343]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Related Material:
Correct Relationship
The Correct Connection
The Connection Of Big Egoists

How to Control Our Life

600.01Comment: Well-known coach and business consultant Erik Bertrand Larssen developed a methodology based on his military experience and wrote about it in his book called Hell Week: Seven Days to Be Your Best Self.

Larssen believes there are three models of highly effective cultures: the military, business, and sports. The military teaches us to push beyond our limits to discover we are capable of more. Athletes demonstrate how to set and pursue goals systematically. Sports also teaches us that victory is not achieved under the spotlight on the final stretch but through daily, painstaking training.

However, in your view, the mind merely serves the desires.

My Response: We should not go against desires. A person cannot truly change them. What I can do is split my desire into smaller parts: one becomes two, two become four, and so on. There will be a chain reaction. The only real option is to prioritize one desire over another, higher one. And that depends on the society around me.

Therefore, if I am in a group that values higher desires over my personal ones, I can easily let go of my bad desires and adopt their good ones.

Military, sports, and business, all involve self-coercion. But I do not want to coerce myself. I am weak. Why should I subject myself to such extreme states? The body does not like that.

Question: There are different approaches. What is the key to the Kabbalistic method in order to say: “Guys, you are looking in the wrong place”?

Answer: The key or secret lies entirely in the environment around you. Nothing else! If I join the right environment, and this environment knows how to motivate and influence me, tempting me with hints and exercises like with a child, it can shape me however it wants.

Kabbalah, first of all, calls for building a correct society where everyone can progress further.

Question: Can you name a few principles that such a society follows that others could take as a model?

Answer: A Kabbalistic society is very simple. It is built on the principle of gradually bringing people closer together by rising above their small, narrow, personal egos.

Members engage in specific exercises called workshops where they discuss these ideas and attempt to connect and open up to each other. This path involves rising above the natural egoism of a person despite his inherent tendencies.

A person begins to feel like they are entering a kind of elevator, lifting him beyond our nature. It is as if they detach from the Earth and enter a “cosmic elevator” that rises higher and higher, beyond our universe into an entirely different, anti-egoistic universe. In this realm, everything is based on the qualities of bestowal and love, as opposed to the qualities of reception and hatred inherent to our nature.

This gradual transformation occurs under the constant and increasingly changing influence of society.

This model is lifelong and spans all lifetimes because it elevates a person beyond life and death.

A person begins to perceive, see, and feel this! He rises above our egoistic nature and therefore transcends the level of biological life and death. He no longer identifies with his physical body, but starts perceiving himself as an energetic entity called the soul.

I am speaking about a methodology that allows a person to rise above himself and transform into something eternally existing and non-egoistic. It enables him to become acquainted with the Creator, reveal the upper world, and break free from the confines of the small, narrow space in which we exist.

If someone has not just idle curiosity, but a deep, inner yearning, it is possible to work with him.
[237937]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/10/18

Related Material:
What Is The Essence Of The Method Of Kabbalah?
What Does The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Give Us?
Puzzle “Adam HaRishon”