Throughout history, for many generations, we have been going through a period of the realization of our material desires until we reach the question about the purpose of life. We are looking for the answer to the question about the purpose of life, and, through it, finally, have come to the group.

In the group, we are “washed” like rags in a washing machine, not knowing where, what, and how, like little children who do not know where they are. We remain in this state for some time, sometimes for a few years, until we begin to get ascents and descents.

Then, we are shaken. We suddenly forget what was yesterday, as if we become forgetful. Sometimes, we are possessed by joy and, suddenly by sadness. The Creator begins to drag us to the right and to the left, shaking us from side to side. We feel like that emotionally and mentally.

This happens until a person understands that he can go straight only if he clings to the Creator through the group because the Creator is always in the center of the group. For this purpose, He shakes and will shake us a lot for a long time, until we understand. The science of Kabbalah explains to us in advance why we are given all these states so that we strive for the Creator consciously.
[92891]
From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Workshop 1

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It is needless to say that we all need to unite and especially in Georgia where a desire for unity, peace, and being good neighbors is considered the most exalted human desire. I think it is clear that we need to be together, study according to one methodology, and not look for anything else. Later, we will discover that all of that is one, indeed, but we shouldn’t dig into that or go away.

First of all, it is important to reach the level of attaining a spiritual world where we see its roots. Then, there will be no problems. I really want our friends who are in various searches just to put it aside until the time they can understand.

Then, it will be clear that all of us come from Babylon, and Kabbalah comes from there as well. Kabbalah embraces all the teachings. Then, there will be no more conflict and no searches.

When a person begins to study the science of Kabbalah—when he still hasn’t entered into it and doesn’t realize what a spiritual world is and begins to match words and various expressions—all of that is not serious. He is sorry for the time and, most importantly, for bringing discord, dissention, and separation into a group and the entire world Kli.

He doesn’t even understand that by doing so, he creates a point of sickness that spreads this disease across all of our enormous body. Thus, he will suffer, not to a small measure due to the violation that he did, but to the extent of dissonance that he caused in the entire group. I feel sorry for these people. They just don’t understand why they are getting carried away somewhere.

Trust me; it is not worth doing anything except working on unity. Any theory and any direction that causes separation do not lead to holiness.

Thus, we need to put all of these attempts aside and hold onto each other as if for dear life! As in the ocean, if there is anything that disconnects us, we will sink immediately, and, if we stick together, we will stay afloat. That is how we need to see this.
[92780]
From a Meal at the Georgia Convention 11/7/12

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There is only one means to reach the goal of creation—the science of Kabbalah. Any other goal that appears in this world can be achieved by using our forces. But we do not have the force to attain the goal of creation; we have no possibility of understanding it. We are not designed originally to be able to see the goal and reach it.

But there is a state inherent in the process of our development in which we feel bad without achieving the goal of creation even in our normal life on earth, as if it is not related to the higher goal. However, we exist in the material world to rise out of it and reach the goal of creation.

So, there comes a stage in our development when we suddenly feel that it is enough, we can no longer continue like that, and it is necessary to find the meaning of life. From this moment, a person begins to search for this meaning.

This question awakens in individuals and in entire groups or even in the whole world. Of course, this was facilitated by blows that people feel as suffering according to their current perception, meaning average worldly problems with food, family, money, respect, and knowledge.

A person feels a lack of fulfillment in these earthly desires, which cannot be satisfied with anything, and thus he starts crying: “What is the meaning of my life?” He loses the taste of his existence so much that he does not understand why he needs this life if he does not reach the goal.

Then, he comes to the need to realize the method of Kabbalah to achieve the goal of creation. So, the entire material life of humanity aspires to one goal.

To some it comes earlier, to others later, according to a specific process, depending on the root of each soul. But sooner or later, everyone must come to this goal, changing his nature so that all our egoistic desires diminish to the level of basic necessities.

This material level is neither condemned nor praised because a person satisfies these basic needs in order to exist for the realization of spiritual purpose. And all the available forces he will devote to the achievement of this higher goal.
[92813]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot 

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In Kabbalah, the historical aspect plays a minor role. It doesn’t matter when or in which generation a certain Kabbalist operated; what’s important is what he did and what he fulfilled in the general system of the worlds, which corrections he made, so that thanks to this, those who come after him would be able to advance in a better, easier way. I cannot assess the Kabbalists or compare them until I am in the upper system myself. I judge according to what I see today. Suppose someone has left wonderful writings that light my emotions and my mind and enable me to advance. Accordingly I see that Kabbalist as great.

On the other hand, Baal Shem Tov, for example, didn’t leave any books, but all the Kabbalists that followed him rose thanks to his study. The Ari didn’t write anything either, all his teachings were written by his disciple, Rabbi Chaim Vital. There were also Kabbalists who shortened the way for the next generations. It all depends on the root of a person’s soul. Only in the network of the connections between the souls can we discern what each of them did in the general framework, and what corrections he made in it.

Rabash says that the Talmud sages made the greatest corrections. On the one hand, they had attained spirituality on a very high level, and on the other hand, they were already in exile. This allowed them to write and to describe the states on a corporeal level and at the same time to make great spiritual corrections. In the “Introduction to TES” Baal HaSulam speaks about the requirements of those times: “You shall eat bread and salt, drink water sparingly, sleep on the ground, and labor in the Torah.” But by their spiritual work, Kabbalists have annulled these extremely difficult conditions and left us only one means, the Light that Reforms. Since then, it is enough in order to fulfill the goal of creation.

They, of course, drew the Light before that too, as it says: “You shall labor in the Torah,” but this was in addition to asceticism. Later the authors of the Talmud developed the channels of abundance to such an extent that now we can lead an ordinary corporeal life, needing no luxuries and settling for the necessities. The Light creates such a reality that we don’t need to think or to worry about that.
[92700]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: How can you identify a Kabbalist? Even though the spiritual work is concealed, can the fact that a person speaks about correcting our desire be some indication of that?

Answer: I don’t know. He may have read Kabbalah books many times and describes their content to you. Well, what of that? Is he a Kabbalist according to this? Or is it enough that his blessing makes your body tremble?

And what if a person says something and it happens a couple of days later? There are quite a few people in the world that can foretell the future, but a fortuneteller is not a Kabbalist. He tells you what will happen to you in this world, but it has nothing to do with Kabbalah and nothing to do with spirituality.

A well-known fortuneteller, Wolf Messing, accurately foresaw the events that were to happen in the future including world wars and peoples’ fates. He even predicted the day and the hour of his own death. During the crisis with Cuba, he actually revealed all the cards, describing the concerns of the two sides and the consequences of any move. As a result, the two sides reached an agreement and eliminated the threat of war.

A person can feel what is about to happen in the world, since everything already exists, but is concealed from our perception. For us it is a secret, but in fact there is no time and it is about the levels that are revealed one following the other, so there are people who can see “through” this order.

Imagine that I am short-sighted and it would take me five minutes to get close enough to you to recognize you. On the other hand, if I put on my glasses, I will be “closer” to you without having to wait five minutes and will immediately identify you. Time and distance are the same thing, the same essence, it all depends on the “glasses”…

One way or the other, such abilities have nothing to do with Kabbalah. Different secret agencies use such techniques, but clairvoyants are not Kabbalists.

A Kabbalist is a person who identifies with the Creator and is already on the spiritual ladder. What is more, it is a person who can already receive in order to bestow on the third level of the first Sefirot.
[92698]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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There are four levels of development of the desire to receive in spirituality: the still, vegetative, animate and speaking.

The desire acts according to the force that is in it.

If it is a force on the level of the still nature, the desire keeps its structure and resists external forces as much as it can, so that they wouldn’t penetrate it and wouldn’t break it. There are materials that are more or less strong, more or less stable depending on the intensity of the desire of the specific still form. Some materials are very hard to break down, while others are malleable. Another question is which materials are eventually more resistant to external influences, a rubber wheel, for example absorbs the blows despite the external shaking and penetrations, while a stone or iron ring breaks down much faster.

This is how we check our desires according to their internal hardness and not their physical hardness: how do they resist external changes. Even in our world we see the difference between rubber and iron that can resist external changes but breaks down when something penetrates it.

After the level of the still nature there is the vegetative level. Its desire is stronger and greater, and it can resist external influences, sort them out and use the beneficial elements. It checks and sorts out external factors, absorbs what is beneficial and emits what is harmful.

Thus a very complex act of clarification takes place for which the desire of the vegetative has to know its own structure, how and what it exists for, what is beneficial for it, and what is harmful. The vegetative does this clarification instinctively, and by that we can understand how one should operate on the spiritual level of the vegetative.

The desire of the animate level can choose its environment, and so it can move from place to place. It needs a mate to reproduce. Birth is a real creation here, as if the Creator creates a new creation. In spirituality it is indeed so, and unless one acquires the force of Bina it cannot give birth.

The desire on the animate level can take on many forms. In addition to knowing itself, it also knows different phenomena that reveal smaller and bigger desires. Thus the animate level sees its life from one end to another. Animals have offspring and bring them up. On the whole, at this level, there is an instinctive inner program of knowledge of one’s life, even though it is limited and inevitable.

Animals move around and feel where it is good for them and where it is bad. They can choose the environment. The vegetative hardly influences the environment, but only protects itself from pests and to a certain extent opens up to beneficial external conditions such as sunlight, air, moisture, etc. On the other hand, animals choose and change the environment; they move from one place to another, they make themselves a place to live, and reproduce. To a certain extent they feel the other, including their prey, which they also have to understand and feel. They feel the other especially when they gather in flocks, which have a clear order and hierarchy.

These are profound things but they are still fulfilled instinctively.

As for us on the level of the speaking, everything has to be above the desire to receive, above the restriction. We should only understand that a person has to get to know the new world.

In the spiritual world there are 620 desires that operate on every level:

• The still level is ready to resist any changes of its ego, by keeping itself under the Masach (screen), under the protection of the restriction, that is, above all the egoistic desires.
• The vegetative level uses its desire to receive from the egoistic shell of the Klipot with the help of the Light that Reforms, and begins to empty it and clarify what is good for it and what is harmful. It absorbs what is beneficial and emits what is harmful, opening and closing itself, as all its actions are aimed at bestowal, but still operating within the general, with no personal clarification, not giving birth to anything independently. The creatures on the vegetative level remain within the framework of the general desire and change together. In other words, a person can be above his personal egoistic desire, but he cannot “bend” or change society yet, he cannot encompass it and correct it internally.
• The animate level with its desire to receive can exist in the Creator’s world almost limitlessly.
• A human being includes all of the environment inside him, the whole world, and becomes a “righteous that is the foundation of the world.”

Baal HaSulam speaks about it in article 115 in Shamati, which is also called “Still, Vegetative, Animate and Speaking.”
[92475]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/12, Shamati #115

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Question: We know that we are all egoists. We were led to the group by the awareness that we cannot live like this. However, we still do not have an understanding of the goal; there is no course; we are like the blind. How can blind people show the road to each other?

Answer: A person advances according to his desires. When I really want, I move forward. If I feel good in the current moment, I do not move, but remain there. If it is good there, then I will sit there, thinking about nothing else: I will have no thoughts, no movement—nothing. As soon as I feel bad, then there is movement from bad to better. This is the only way I advance.

If we are in a group, learn, and make some actions, we think that this is enough; we have no inclination to move forward; every day is the same routine, everything is the same. How can we force ourselves to move forward?

Of course, if, God forbid, misfortunes fall on us or the world, it shakes us. And what if they do not? Then, I need to create them on purpose, artificially, otherwise I will not move forward.

Creating problems artificially? Yes!

It is better to create them yourself then if they come from somewhere above. There is nowhere to escape, we need to move forward; only if I bring about this discomfort, these desires in myself, then it will be better for me. I will do this with others purposefully. I gather people and tell them: “Why do we wait for the next hurricane, crisis, or tsunami? Why do they come? To move us from point A to point B. Let’s do something ourselves that will force us to move from point A to point B.”

We have to invent something so that point B pulls us from point A and do something in point A so that it pushes us towards point B, that is, so that we feel bad now and good in the future, so it seems to us. Let’s figure out how to do this, then we will move forward, and we will not need various negative forces that push us.

How can we do this? It is said that “a friend should help a friend.” They help each other by constantly telling how wonderful the next state is and how unbearable the current state is. If so, I convince myself, and if my friends say that all the time and I become convinced of this, then I do not need any negative forces; I will rush forward myself instead of waiting for something to happen or not happen to me.

Envy is the most powerful tool; it is good for moving forward. We need to use properties such as envy, jealousy, and so on.
[92507]
From the Georgia Convention 11/06/12, Lesson 2

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Question: Can anyone climb the spiritual ladder to the top and what will happen to those who cannot rise?

Answer: Everyone must and will have to reach a balance, harmony with nature, the Creator, with others. Everyone!

What will happen to those who do not want? Nature will push them with a stick towards happiness and beat them until they want. It will beat them, so no guards are needed. Then a person will begin to ask himself quietly: “Why is this happening? Why is this falling on me? What am I doing wrong?” Because blows gradually teach him.

Therefore, in order to learn quickly, to understand this after one or two blows and not after a hundred or two hundred, Kabbalah exists. In principle, it does nothing else; it simply helps understand what the problem in life is and how to change it.
[92306]
From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1 

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Question: What are spiritual sight and hearing?

Answer: The first stage of attainment is called “I heard,” and the second stage is “I saw,” but it is not the ears and eyes, but the level, the depth, of spiritual attainment. When a person reaches the state, “do not do evil to others,” then he is in the state, “I heard,” and when in addition, he reaches the level, “love thy neighbor as thyself,” then he reaches the level of “I saw.”
[92303]
From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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