Unity Day – 08.28.11
Posted on August 28th, 2011
Depending on a person’s attitude to his ups and downs, on the extent he is able to view them as one state, you can assess how well he uses the environment and how close he has come to the Creator in correcting his desires. At each spiritual degree, we attain that “the Light shines as the darkness” to the degree of that state. And this is possible only through connecting with the external desires, which serve as a reserve where you deposit desires obtained during a descent, or inspiration and revelations that were obtained during an ascent. That is how one alternates the work during ascents and descents by compensating them.
To the extent I “charge” my environment during my ascent, I can now take it back when I fall so that instead of a descent I would remain in some middle state. When I rise, I fill my entire environment with my inspiration and am able to to use it later on. With every step, I strive to “rectify” myself so as to benefit from the ascents and descents: during the descent, I gain new desires, while during the ascent, I get filled with new impressions, Light, revelations, and meanings.
Then I am able to work steadily, like a circuit with a capacitor that is charged and discharged, or an engine where one piston rises and the other falls. We see that in nature there always are two forces at work, and the pressure difference causes the wind and other phenomena. But in man, these two forces must eventually join into one. The ups and downs, gratitude and accusation toward the Creator—it all links together into one whole, into relating to the Creator as the good who does good. That is how a person reveals the spirituality—the property of bestowal clothed in him.
All the properties that one can consider spiritual clothe in him—they are not somewhere else, in some other far-off place, and there are no objects apart from man. If we want to reveal spirituality, we must find it within ourselves, between the various states, which we classify as ascent or descent, reception or bestowal. If we can combine these two forces correctly, then we will discover Him! But we will do so only within ourselves, as a form clothed in matter, the property of bestowal dressed in the receiving force.
[52292]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/11, Shamati
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Our broken souls are in the worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya), and when we unite, we will ascend into the world of Atzilut, which means “at his house” (Etzlo). If we ascend there “from below upwards,” with our own forces, then we attain our final correction. In this way, we correct the breaking that took place in the world of Nekudim.
However, if we are unable to connect into one soul, then we are in another realm, as the Creator, Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut said, “I cannot be in one place with an arrogant man.” We are the “arrogant man” and are beneath the boundary of the world of Atzilut (Parsa), in the worlds of BYA which are “separated from holiness.”
But the worlds of BYA are also a spiritual level where a person feels separated and distant from the Creator. He has some understanding, knowledge, and sensation of his uncorrected, spiritual state. On the other hand, when a person just starts out on this path, he is even lower, not to mention those who simply live a regular life in this world and have not even started moving toward bestowal, meaning those who are in no way connected with the spiritual ladder yet.
Yet, to the extent we are able to attract the Light that reforms with our mutual work, it will enable us to connect with Malchut of the world of Atzilut, from below upwards. And if we make efforts in order to belong to Malchut, by that we bring her separate organs back and glue them back together.
Malchut of the world of Atzilut is just a point, while all the souls are below the Parsa. And if we ask and desire to belong to bestowal, to unity, to mutual guarantee and love for the neighbor, then we draw the Light of correction upon us and rise to Malchut of the world of Atzilut—the assembly of all the souls.
From there we begin to work to become similar to Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut, the Creator. And the unity of Zeir Anpin and Malchut raises us even higher, to the state of the final correction.
[52013]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/11, Shamati
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Question: It is written that inner work has to become a habit. But on the other hand, one has to leave one’s world and all of his previous habits, and enter an unknown place, the way the Creator sends Abraham off, or like crossing “the Red Sea.” How can I break through to this new path, because I feel that if I remain the way I am, I will stay in the same place?
Answer: This is a very wise observation. Habit is good for attaining the current level. But in order to rise above it, one must leave his land, the way Abraham did.
Leaving an old habit means wishing to acquire a new one. But we are always acquiring a new habit, a new nature, a new degree.
If I want to learn something, then I take an example from a specialist. To him, this science has become habitual, but for me—it hasn’t. He has a habitual understanding, attaining, and behavior, whereas I do not. But I want to become the same as he. That is why I have to leave behind my habits, which I acquired in the past and which I have on the current level. Once I finish mastering this level, I cleave to something higher.
However, when I do this in spirituality, I have to look at the inner behavior of the upper one, rather than the outer behavior. I won’t see anything by looking at the externality. I must somehow discern what I have to cleave to inside of him, what quality I have to reveal in him, how to use him in order to rise to his level and learn from him.
I have to demand for him to elevate me because I am held back by my old habits like by brakes. On one hand, they support me on my level, but on the other hand, they cling to me and don’t let me rise higher.
I have to receive a special force against these bonds, against the habits, which will pull me out. These habits are like the earth’s gravity, like a weight that does not allow me to tear away from the ground. If I weigh 100 pounds, then I need a force greater than this weight in order to elevate me. It has to be at least 101 pounds. Otherwise I won’t go up.
And the same thing happens in spirituality. I have to ask the upper one to apply a greater force to me than my current habits and force. These are very simple mechanics.
How can I ask Him to cancel my entire previous nature, which I have gotten so used to!? We are like little children who are so attached to their old blanket or pillow that they cling to it and don’t agree to let go of it for anything. That is why I need an environment to enable me to leave behind my dear habits and acquire something new, something higher!
It’s as if you are hearing an inner voice telling you, “Go forth from your land”—this is an awakening coming from Above. This is what the Creator says to Abraham. We are buried inside of our habits and are unable to even think about leaving them. Inside of my habits, I feel confident and better than ever. If a person feels any aspiration to leave his habits, this is coming to him from Above.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/11, Shamati
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Rather than existing in this tiny part of reality, when a person wishes to break through to its second part, the eternal and perfect part, then he has several means to do it: teacher, group, and books. The teacher explains that such an opportunity exists. He explains that it can be realized with the help of a group where everyone strives toward the perception of the true, perfect reality, and with the books that speak of the same perfect reality.
When we try to be together, it’s as though every person comes out of himself, out of his ego, because he must feel that he exists in the others. Then, when he tries to be above himself, in the others, connected with them, and he reads about the perception of reality in bestowal, this is the way he makes himself similar to the future state, as if he were already there.
To the extent of his aspiration, he evokes the second force from there that exists in reality, the force of bestowal, besides the small force of reception given to him from nature. Then, the force of bestowal comes and makes the changes in him.
A person can perceive these changes as an additional force of reception that comes to him, instead of the force of bestowal that changes him, and this type of perception is also correct. However, besides that, he attains the same force of bestowal. In this way, man advances, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, but driven by the same force of bestowal.
He must attain this force of bestowal together with the force of reception. These two forces begin to be revealed to man as two lines, the right and the left. Then, man advances, sometimes in a state of descent and sometimes in a state of ascent. He does not know yet what descent and ascent are exactly, and so far, he identifies them by his current sensations.
However, as time goes by, he begins to feel that he needs to use these two lines by being between them. In this way, he takes control of them and begins to combine them in the middle line.
Essentially, our entire work consists of studying together, wishing to connect with one another in our hearts, and aspiring toward unity above all the disagreements and differences because all of these things only concern our animate existence, which stays here in this world. We want to connect together in our desires, our points in the heart, above these things.
When we read The Zohar with this intention, the book speaks of our corrected states, about the way we reveal the quality of bestowal in the connection between us which is the same as the Creator, the Light, the spiritual world, the upper world. For this reason, every person must imagine this state when reading The Zohar.
[51054]
From the lesson on 8/12/11, The Zohar
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We have to create a society that will let all the people in the world move correctly into tomorrow. Otherwise, we will not survive. We see what is happening today, especially in developed countries. And the rest are rapidly approaching them. People are starting to feeling that “there is no tomorrow.” But in fact, this is a wonderful state where we are egoistically breaking away from the past and are entering a neutral state, like being “in limbo.”
Now is exactly the time to show people the following system of relationships that will lead us into the feeling of a completely different state. We are entering the next stage of our development. Just as we evolved from monkeys and gradually developed within our animate state, similarly, today we are beginning to develop within our inner, human state.
Today we are rising to the level called “Adam”—a human being, who is similar to the Upper Force of nature. This force wants to teach us to become integral with it, and that is why this crisis is global and integral.
We have to become similar to nature. By accomplishing this, we begin to understand the internal mechanism that drives us. The inner program of nature is taking us toward a specific goal, while we are not even aware of it. We die without knowing what we lived for. We are born and do not know where and why. We do things instinctively because nature forces us to do them, and nothing more.
In reality, there is a whole program of actions, a causal relationship! Every part of nature has a cause, consequence, and goal. Nothing exists without a purpose. And likewise, we do not exist pointlessly either. We can see this because nature is now raising us to this level now—to the next level of development.
At the current level, we are still just realizing our animate egoism in which we were created and which develops in us. By ascending to the next level, which is global and integral, and becoming globally connected with nature, by changing ourselves in accordance with it, we gradually start perceiving the inner mechanism, the internal thought of the Upper Force of nature. As astrophysics say, the entire universe is a thought. When a person becomes conscious of it, he begins to feel eternity.
[51606]
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Question: What’s the right attitude to have to the fear that I now experience when I go out to speak to people about Kabbalah?
Answer: This fear does not disappear until the very end of correction. If you read Psalms, you will be amazed to discover that even King David, who, at the highest spiritual levels, felt fear. Obviously, it’s not the same kind of fear that we feel, but the fear of whether or not you will be able to bestow, whether or not you will perform the action correctly. One has constant doubts about this.
Every spiritual degree begins with these fears and doubts. And the same thing is true for us: Everything begins with fear, repulsion, aversion, and apprehension. This is Malchut, which reveals the lack of everything within her. This is the degree of entering the state of bestowal for the sake of bestowal, Bina, Hafetz Hesed.
The state of bestowal for the sake of bestowal is not the state of a fearless hero. For now one is just rising above his ego, above all of the fears, and he can only bestow for the sake of bestowal. And it is possible to rise to this level of bestowal only from fear and apprehension, the feeling that you don’t have anything—no strength or understanding, but that doesn’t matter!
The most important is to rise above all of these fears and cleave to the upper one, and thus to attain the smallest, initial adhesion that is called the state of an “embryo,” three days of the seed’s absorption, above all of these unpleasant sensations.
This is a state of crisis, separation, and weakness which is in fact, worse than death. After all, death would provide some kind of escape, but here there is no escape. All you can do is leap upwards! This is not a simple state.
[51490]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/11, “The Nation”
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Question: Can a point in the heart be lost? And can I feel it again after that? I’ve been studying Kabbalah for a few months. I suddenly felt changes and I guess a little Light, which I never felt before that. My views changed, I felt more secure and I really felt nature’s perfection. My burning desire for spirituality changed my relation to everything.
But this great state of mind lasted just a few days and now it seems to me that it’s gone. I continue to read and listen, but it feels harder although I want it very much. What can I do? I’m scared and feel like the point in the heart is lost. Can I attain it again?
Answer: You are going through the regular stages of your development. You were shown the minimal spiritual sensation, and now you have to attain it on your own, through unification with others like you who also aspire to this goal.
Question: In the post “How Spiritual Life Is Born,” it says, “I have restricted your desires because I was unable to satisfy them.” Does it mean we help each other do the restriction? Or that just one of both can do the work?
Answer: Each person does it inside of himself.
[50960]
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Question: When will I find out that I bestow and don’t receive?
Answer: You will know that you bestow when you feel that all of this is being done by the force of the Light that dresses into you and the Creator is acting through you, while you are an instrument in the hands of the force that has dressed into you. Then you really will be bestowing.
You bestow when you feel that you are happily outside of yourself, that you are in others, and there you perform upper actions. The Light operates within you. There is an inner spirit that pushes you and directs you. This is a sensation that cannot be mistaken for anything else!
But it comes as a result of all of the previous actions, which you make against your will. The most important is to desire bestowal! It’s as if you are trying to start up a car, again and again, until it finally starts working!
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/11, Shamati
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Baal HaSulam, “The Nation”: We are certain that Israel is not alone, and among us there are those who search the hearts, and can provide a successful scheme that will unite all the factions in the nation. And from experience we have learned that specifically those people sit at the corner without listeners.
Question: Who is Baal HaSulam talking about when he writes, “those who search the hearts”?
Answer: Anyone who is interested in taking part in an open discussion and creating an integral, global system that will envelop the entire nation. We are happy to see people like that. Let’s unite and start working together.
As soon as we unite in order to compile at least an initial phase of the program, clear changes for the better will start happening that very day. Our unity already contains a spiritual force, and it will immediately begin to work. We will see this in practice.
Then people will begin thinking in new ways and will begin to understand what is happening. They will feel how matters stand and will start looking at the world differently. That is how the Light works.
Today we are unable to get anything done because the world is governed by a global system. But if you bring a little bit of Light into it, you will see how it becomes activated in a positive fashion. All we have to do is unite and sit by a round table.
[51241]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/11, “The Nation”
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