Question: How can we check what our intention is while reading The Zohar?

Answer: The Book of Zohar is the source of Light that comes to us if we want to use it correctly. Thus, while studying Kabbalistic books, I always summon some illumination upon me, but it comes according to the intensity of my efforts and my readiness. If I study in order to gain something corporeal or to gain the next world as a personal privilege, then the Light, by its influence, creates in me even greater darkness. I grow further away from the understanding of what this system was given to me for, what I have to do with myself, and how I should treat others. Even when I read wonderful words about love and connection, I don’t feel a sense of belonging anymore, I don’t see the connection and I don’t know how to perceive the text: Whether to let it enter my heart or not, this means that I study like a bat that is nourished by the night and doesn’t expect the dawn.

But if I try to connect with others and this is the reason I learn the method, by keeping and observing the condition for accepting it at Mt. Sinai, yearning together with everyone else to be “as one man in one heart,” to enter mutual guarantee, to attain brotherly love and through it the love of the Creator, then the Light begins to advance me. This isn’t the ordinary path that is overcome in stages anymore, but I gradually begin to discover the bad shattered state in it.

The egoistic study conceals my ego from me, and I see myself as righteous. On the other hand, by the right study, I discover that I am immersed in evil. The first thing that the Light reveals to me is my evil attributes, and I have to work accordingly. By discovering the evil, I feel even worse feelings than before. So what can I do? After all, according to my nature I want to escape when I feel bad.

Perhaps I should stop studying and withdraw from the group? Perhaps I should feel despair? Or perhaps I should be happy that I was allowed to discover the recognition of evil? It should be a law for me, an invitation: If I can rise above this unpleasant feeling, I will yearn for bestowal above receiving.

I prefer to receive a blow, since the sufferings that are revealed in my ego show me that I don’t work for it. Although I experience unpleasant feelings, I overcome them and aim at unity. I don’t escape in order to sweeten the bitterness; I don’t close myself, I don’t descend, and I don’t stop studying. On the contrary, I accept all the troubles that come from every direction on the way to unite with the friends, as being sent by the Creator and that there is nothing besides Him.

I accept every state as beneficial for my advancement. I don’t want to annul them and I continue to study in order to neutralize the bad feeling. I actually want it; I want it to stay since it focuses me exactly on how to rise above it, to be above reason. I gladly accept all the problems and interruptions, the pressure of the circumstances, the external mockery, the different sufferings, since they all help me focus on the goal correctly, creating such limitations, such frameworks, that by working within them I undoubtedly advance forward.

Thus build inside me the vessels of bestowal above the vessels of receiving. They continue to grow and to suffer, while I, being one level above them, want to hold on to the connection with the Creator until I attain full faith, the attribute of Bina, and begin using my vessels of receiving in order to bestow.

But then too I don’t intend to calm myself, since I have risen to such a degree that there should be no thought of complacency. On the contrary, I yearn more and more upwards and am even ready to receive pleasure, but not in order to fill myself, but in order to fulfill the Creator’s desire.

This is all our work. Along this path I need a real source, an egoistic desire that provides me with the force of bestowal thanks to my overcoming the problems and the sufferings that are revealed in it, and it’s clear to me that it all comes from the Creator.
[85707]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/12, The Book of Zohar

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The current state of the world is much worse than we feel, see and know. It is true that we do not talk about it because politicians and economists are not interested in creating a panic. They have no answer to the question about the crisis. They have no answer, and there is nothing you can do. Why should one panic in vain? And they’re right.

But we need to provide to people who are in a state of fear of hunger, drought, cold, shock, and the unpredictable approaching from all sides now. We should try to absorb all the animal fears of the world, fears of survival. They help us to gather and reveal that force, the surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), which will pass through us to the world, and everything will calm down. All the countries, societies, and people will begin to interact because they will understand that this is the only way to bring the world to balance, that not the still, not the vegetative, not the animate nature, but only the human being disturbs harmony, and everything else is disturbed by his egoistic actions.

We lack anxiety; we lack internal hysteria. If it were there, it would be easier.

Our problem is that we are disconnected from this world and try to find a quiet corner somewhere in our higher place. This is not good. On the contrary, we should find, on one hand, the state of the greatness of the goal, and on the other hand, inner fears, because our egoism is fed only by these. Fear and the greatness of the goal are two great forces that are pushing us from behind (fear) and drawing us forward (the greatness of the goal). They will help us to unite.

We should put pressure on ourselves to try to absorb from the world all of its negative feelings that arise in connection with the crisis and to turn them into the force of our development. Indeed, development occurs under the law of “negation of negation.” Until we feel more or less normal, we will not come to the next state. Only suffering or the greatness of the goal, when I suffer because I don’t have it, makes us go.

There are two types of suffering: suffering from a lack of feeling and suffering from unfulfilled love.
[85805]
From the Preliminary Lesson 8/16/12, Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 

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From the letter by Baal HaSulam (No. 8): We see from the ages ago and up until today, how many people have poisoned their lives with all kinds of suffering and self-torture, and all for the sake of finding some kind of meaning in the service to the Creator, or to come to know the ruler of the world! And all of them have squandered their life in vain, and they left this world as they came, not having achieved anything, and why did the Creator not answered all of their prayers? Why did He pride Himself in front of them? Why, really, did He not move towards them? And it is in that He is called “The most proud of all proud ones”.

In the human race, lives a bitter delusion that compels them to go along the wrong paths in the search for the highest force for the reasons for their bad lives. This search is not correct because we need to search not in the midst of evil, but to clarify where the source of the good is and to strive toward Him, toward reaching similarity with Him, instead of waiting in your current state and demanding from Him to improve your life at the same place, where you are now.

That is why Baal HaSulam writes in his letter that: We see from the ages ago and up until today, how many people have poisoned their lives with all kinds of suffering and self-torture, and all for the sake of finding some kind of meaning in the service to the Creator. But what service is this to the Creator if man suffers and is tormented and at the same time is also searching in this for some kind of a higher meaning? This was not the goal.

In such an approach, there are several distorted conceptions, and therefore all who followed it have squandered their life in vain. One tried to make it better for himself in his place, changing nothing. Another one searched for how to control the Creator in the use for his own benefit. The third one counted on getting closer to the Creator by the means of suffering and to receive a reward for the fact that he suffered. And it is even written that: “Suffering softens egoism, as salt does meat.” From this, fasting and prayers have derived, having passed into all religions.

And all of them have squandered their life in vain, and they left this world as they came because that was not the correct approach. The Creator does not want our suffering. He does not need anything from us besides the attainment of His greatness and mergence with Him, meaning, to attain the same height.

All of our actions, besides the ones aimed at reaching similarity with the Creator, are completely useless and will not lead to anything. And even more so, do not assume that suffering is a part of the path to the Creator. If man suffers, it is a sign that he is disconnected from the Creator and not simply distanced from Him, but he is also moving away in the opposite direction.

While the “drop of unity”, a point of merging is only reached by the means of man constantly striving towards similarity to the Creator, as it is said: “From the love of the people, to the love of the Creator”. All other paths, however, are not the right ones.

Baal HaSulam writes about that with great pain, being sorry that it happens this way throughout the whole of the human history up until today. But what can be done? Taking the chance, we need to try to explain to everyone about what the truth is.
[84638]
From the Preparation to the Lesson 7/29/12

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The point of truth is revealed today: The whole world is like a kindergarten without a teacher. It doesn’t know where to go and feels puzzled and lost. This is an excellent state. We’ve already spoken about that, although we assumed that it would happen much sooner. Now we must prevent the problems and riots that can result from all this mess.

We are facing a very painful crisis and a world war. We are sliding towards it according to the laws of creation. Today those who “rule” the world have lost their power and think: “Perhaps it’s better to resort to military actions in order to start from scratch.” There is undoubtedly an option to resolve the situation, to stop the war and to “sweeten” the way, and its success depends on us. Baal HaSulam says that if we don’t stop this deterioration, humanity will be heading towards a nuclear war. This is the natural course of events guided by the ego if we don’t bring the Light into it.

What is more, Baal HaSulam mentions a fourth world war, which means that there will be someone who will manage it after the third world war. Is this possible? Of course. And it may even be very soon.

So what can we do? It’s dissemination and the reinforcement of inner unity. We need these two powerful forces: the external and the internal. There is no other force in the world that can change the balance but us. Think about this seriously. We need as many teachers, as many educators, as many lecturers as possible and we are preparing them the best way we can to go to the general public.

The situation is really critical. All the current crises that are revealed are just a very small tip of the iceberg compared to what is concealed from us. The elite are spending lots of money to hide the real situation in the world. It’s only since they have no choice that they release drops of information through the media.

In addition to the economic problems, there are ecological problems: We are facing dire disasters compared to those we’ve just experienced are nothing. There is going to be shortage of water and food, and our actual existence on this planet is under threat. The point is not to cut off the “layer of fat,” to cut down on food and to move into one room with the whole family. No, it will be much worse.

Question: This means that I have to dedicate all my life, all my powers to connection and dissemination?

Answer: Yes. And as to everything else, make do with the basic necessities, to such an extent that I will also be happy to get rid of it, but I can’t because it’s necessary to sustain my body.
[82587]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Opinion (Yuri Gavrilechko, Strategic Culture Foundation): “The fifth year of the global financial crisis reveals the inability of existing institutions to overcome the crisis on the basis of the dominant neo-liberal ideology. Capitalism, as it turned out, is also unable to cope with the problems, generated by it, as once feudalism or socialism of the Soviet kind. As a result, in the near future, we will be able to observe a combination of the old ideological concepts and possibly the birth of new forms and patterns of social organization.

“The failure of multiculturalism in Europe and the strengthening of the crisis have already led to an increase in support for nationalism and socialism. … Because as opposed to socialism, professing internationalism and brotherhood of nations, Fascism and National Socialism was based on the idea of exclusive supremacy of one race over another; it is more logical that they would lay the basis for a pan-European identity. …

“The peculiarity of pan-European fascism might be a symbiosis with the leftists and even the radical left-wing tendencies. … The situation in Germany in 1933 was largely similar to the one that has developed now in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and will very soon become a reality for most EU countries…. Another factor contributing to the popularity of fascism will be the growth of left sentiments in society and the possible reincarnation of communist slogans.”

My Comment: According to Kabbalah, if humanity doesn’t head towards its correction along the good path, it will come to it through the path of suffering that will bring us fascist regimes and global nuclear war that they would start from the powerlessness to overcome the crisis.
[82031]

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Question: When I feel hungry, for example, I have to fill myself. What can I do if I fear that I will not be able to do that, if I feel the lack of filling?

Answer: The fear of being hungry, ill, or old and the fear of death are the fear of the defeat of the ego. The fear of lack of filling, of lack of fulfillment, is already on a higher level, but it is still an egoistic fear, but can we fight it; why was it given to us?

It is impossible to run away from fears, starting from the most primitive fear of death and all the other fears that turn into awe. They were given to us so that by running away from them, since we will have no choice, and by seeing that there is nowhere to run and that we cannot compensate ourselves, we will suddenly discover: “If I rise above them, if I live in a system of bestowal and love, outside myself, I will not fear anything. It may well be that if I exit myself, which means my desires and my thoughts, I will be able to imagine that I don’t exist, since I have no desires or thought about myself. What do I have? I have thoughts about others, about everything that isn’t me. So this is probably a good thing. By that I don’t suffer from anything. But if I don’t suffer, I don’t feel anything either. So it may well be that by getting rid of myself, of my fears, I will have to be full of the sufferings of others and to live in such fears. Thus I will get the feeling and will be able to fill them.”

This means that all these thoughts are essential in order to push a person forward. He mustn’t get rid of them; he mustn’t avoid them, but on the contrary, only try to aim them correctly.

We are constantly managed by fear until the end of correction, Gmar Tikkun—it is either fear about ourselves or fear about others, which depends on how distant the people I fear for, worry about, and feel concerned about are from me; this is how a person’s height is measured.

In what sense? If we say that everything is connected in one single system, then I think about those who are closest to me since I depend on them, and I think about those who are distant from me not because I depend on them but because I simply think about the system and maybe about the Creator since I can already operate on Him through this system. I can bring the system to a state in which He can be revealed and thus cause Him pleasure, etc. This means that I become an active partner sharing His work in the world.

There are always worries, sufferings and fears, and that’s good. By their intensity, I measure my degree, my spiritual ascent—to what extent I turn the fear into advancement.

At the same time, don’t think that when you are advancing spiritually your fears change drastically. You can be given the simplest mundane fears although you may be on a high spiritual level.

All this will continue until you complete the correction. How else can a person be pushed forward if not by fears? Fear is a feeling of a desire that is not full.
[82038]
From a “Talk During the Meal in Toronto” 6/19/12

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The collective desire in the group is attained only with regard to a common goal. The factor that forces us to connect is the Creator, the common point that connects us. Also, we shouldn’t forget about the rest of the world. We cannot advance in our work if we do not think and worry about those who need our help, and meanwhile suffer in this world.

We have to help them; we must hurry and raise them higher and higher each time. It is like navigating ships through a set of locks on the Panama Canal. A ship is brought into a set of locks where the water is at a certain level. Then the gates are locked and the lock is filled with water, lifting the ship to a higher level that matches the next set of locks. Afterwards the ship passes to another set of locks, again the gate is locked, the ship rises, and moves on. This is how we have to guide the nations of the world through all the “sets of locks” to the upper world. First we have to connect to people, to find the common points, “to open the door for them,” to bring them closer to us, and to draw them into our system, which means to lock the dam. Then with this level of the water, we begin to raise them up to the next level. Subsequently, they will be able to move on to the following “set of locks,” to study in the next course, and so we will gradually lead them from one world into the next.
[81809]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/12, “MatanTorah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Why is it that we prefer to stay within the suffering and don’t want to escape it, as if we even enjoy it?

Answer: We enjoy our suffering. The whole world enjoys suffering because there is a very simple way to escape it and attain a wonderful state of goodness, which is even impossible to describe. But people prefer to suffer.

Our desire to receive is responsible for this; it likes to suffer. All of our pleasure comes from overcoming the suffering. It is really masochism. All of our pleasures, from the smallest to the greatest, of all kinds, come only from suffering. We enjoy having been able to avoid suffering a little bit, rising above it, but in any case, it is all rooted in suffering. This is the nature of the desire to receive.

In order to enjoy, we need a deficiency and then after, to fulfill it. In our case, the deficiency is the lack of fulfillment, death. And a little above death is already considered pleasure, but nonetheless, it is still associated with death. Pleasure, is when there is a little more than the state of death.

However, spiritual pleasure is different, there is pleasure from bestowal there. Thus, even the lowest, basic level already gives strength and symbolizes life, since I don’t feel deficiency in anything. I don’t personally need anything for myself. I am in the state of Bina, “Hafetz Hesed (Desire for Bestowal),” like a monk who lives in the forest and doesn’t even feel the need for a shirt.

And above this state, I feel even more life, even more bestowal, even more freedom. While at the same time, in our desire to receive, we feel only death and suffering and can’t escape it. Without this, the ego can’t feel pleasure. We must always add a little “salt and pepper” to the food to spice it up.
[81744]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: The integral method is unnatural to human egoism, and for that reason, people try to dodge it. People need proof.

Answer: Proof can be twofold. Either we show a person a good future that truly shines to him from afar if he becomes an integral element of society and reaches harmony and balance with it, or he experiences the suffering that is not far ahead.

At the same time, we need to show people that suffering is necessary only so that one will realize the need to develop socially. In essence, these are the only two forces of development: suffering that pushes us from behind and benevolent aspiration ahead. That’s it!
[81440]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/24/12

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Question: On one hand, the phenomenon of world wars includes horrible suffering and millions of dead or bereaved people, but on the other hand, they lead to a new degree, a leap in the development of sciences and psychology in particular.

Answer: This is natural. Suffering reveals previously hidden resources in society and in individuals. Thus, completely new systems of interaction and revelations of individuality have begun to come about that are then immediately examined by scientists.

In addition, we need to view wars not only as a system of destruction and conquest, but also as a revelation of an enormous explosive charge of suffering that condenses time. After all, if in one’s everyday life a person exists on a tiny flame of development so to speak, let’s say that over the course of five years of war, a huge leap occurs not only technologically, but also in the relationships between people.

Everything changes: a person’s view of the world, social relationships, and the government. We can say that the war itself is a result of a need for a rapid advancement of society, although certainly it is a dramatic event. However, this is precisely why a need arises for it.

If society develops normally at the speed where people will be connected harmoniously to each other and the outside world, nature, then, of course there no longer will be a need for such periods when the development of society occurs through a leap experienced as tremendous suffering. However, if this will not be achieved, the state that we are in right now may lead to war.
[81434]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/24/12

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