To ascend spiritually we need egoism, above which we need to rise. We don’t need to remove obstacles – we need to rise above them.

It is the fundamental difference between Kabbalah and all other spiritual methodologies, religions and beliefs. They teach one how to remove problems and calm down, so everyone will feel comfortable.

This is the principle on which the entire world acts. Everyone calms himself as best he can by talking to a shrink, taking drugs, fighting, trying to find comfort in sleep, alcohol, religion and rewards in this world.

Whatever a person does is only to erase the unpleasant feelings.

Because of this principle, religions attract people, calming down their egoism. But everything is opposite in Kabbalah – you have to use all your egoism, increase it and rise above it.

Therefore, a person who wants to correct his egoism and turn it to bestowal needs the Light that corrects his egoism. He needs exactly the force that created his ego, as the force will now help him to rise above it.

If a person only suppresses egoism, then he doesn’t need the returning Light and the Creator. He invents some religion or methodology for himself and gets comfortable.

The difference between all other methods and Kabbalah is that Kabbalah doesn’t calm down egoism but rather, enlivens it!

Therefore, only the Kabbalistic method, which works with egoism (not suppressing it but valuing and utilizing it), brings a person to the Upper Light.

Actually, a person needs the Light only to subjugate his egoism and this Light should raise us above all obstacles. This is practical spiritual work.

If a person doesn’t need help from the Light, the Creator,  in order to rise above obstacles and his  egoism, then he will never reach bestowal.

(From Lesson #2 of the Eurasian Congress 10.23.09)

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A question I received: The Kabbalah Congress in Antalya is starting today. What’s the best way to prepare for this special event?

My Answer: You need to be together with us with your heart and soul. Join in on all of our events as much as possible.

The success of the Congress depends on the general mood of its participants. Let’s try to unite and be inspired by the greatness of the goal – unity with the Creator.

It is not simple inspiration that we need, but a close connection to our path, the goal, and unification of all people together with the Upper Force, so that we (meaning each of us, the group, and the Creator) will become one whole.

We will then become similar to this Upper Force, and it will be revealed within all of us. Everything depends on the connection between us, where the Creator is revealed.

If we correct the place where the breaking of the connection between us occurred, it is there that the Creator will be revealed.

We need to raise the quality of bestowal above all the obstacles, so that it will be above everything else. However, we shouldn’t cross out the obstacles, rather we should keep ourselves above them.

Only if we desire to unite in spite of the mutual rejection, will this provide us with spiritual elevation.

(From Lesson #1 of the Eurasian Congress 10.22.09)

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Each of us is a little egoist. Individually we are not opposite to the single Nature.  By developing egoistic desires, Nature forces us to develop in order to fulfill those desires.

However, now we have now reached our maximum individual, egoistic development. This is evident through the feeling of life’s emptiness and the crises in all the spheres of our activity, in and around every person.

Besides the maximal (and empty) egoism, we have proven to be connected as one single egoistic mechanism, and it is this mechanism that is contradictory to the single Nature. Two opposite systems have formed, the system of Control (the Creator) and the system that is controlled (a globally connected human society). Therefore, we will inescapably need to feel this contradiction, the level of opposition to the altruistic Nature by egoistic humanity as problems of every person and of  society (epidemics,  societal crises and other catastrophes of nature, etc.).

We are only now entering the period where global egoism is being revealed “from zero.” In general, its growth will manifest as suffering, the goal of which is to lead all of us to the realization of global egoism as the reason for all our evils and suffering. The suffering will continue until we reach the desire to correct our egoism to a level of global bestowal and love, bringing the system of our relationships into equivalence with Nature (the Creator).

The science of Kabbalah explains how to carry out this change in each person and in society, and without this knowledge we will be unable to correct ourselves. The only question is the amount of suffering that we will need to endure in order to implement the science of Kabbalah for our correction.

The prophets describe this possible suffering as images of “the end of the world.” The dissemination of Kabbalah explains the cause of suffering and shows us how the  correction of society will change everyone to goodness!

Therefore, dissemination of Kabbalah in the world primarily means dissemination of the knowledge of  its intended purpose, rather than dissemination of the wisdom itself. To the extent that we realize the need, only then should we disseminate the method of correction itself. This is how we construct our studies.

(From Lesson #2 of the Eurasian Congress 10.23.09)

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Everything takes place within the desire for pleasure, which was created by the Creator. As it develops, this desire undergoes certain changes. At first we approve of and don’t conflict with it. In fact, any sort of conflict is downright impossible, since one never distances himself from this desire but always acts at its command. He is not yet aware that the desire really isn’t his and that it rules over him. He is yet to distinguish these two aspects within himself as separate: desire and man.

But then inside of him awakens the Creator’s point directed at bestowal and one begins to feel his desire as alien to him. He begins to distinguish between 1. Desire, and 2. Me (point in the heart).

One’s efforts to change his desires further distance himself from them, and one begins to feel like their slave. Regardless of whether they bring pleasure or pain, one begins to understand that these desires are being sent to him. One’s reality appears to comprise three components: 1. The Creator, 2. The desires He sends, 3. Me.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains the matter of free will as how one can use the influence of the group and the Upper Light (Ohr Makif) to exalt the importance of the goal above the interests of the body and corporeal life, and how to change one’s desires so as to attain the goal.

That is how one develops his equivalence to the Creator (bestowal).

From the Daily Lesson of 10.20.09

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We don’t feel that our whole life is subject to a single course of affairs. The Creator purposely confuses us, as though the world has no Source or Goal, so that out of despair from their absence, we will rejoice from the revelation of Kabbalah, which is the method of the revelation of the Creator.

In order to reveal the Creator it is necessary to attribute everything that happens to Him alone and to correct our qualities in order to become similar to Him. If I strive to see only Him and none else behind everything that comes to me – all the blows and pleasures, then from this confusion, I will begin to build a system of connections of desires and thoughts, which are similar to the Creator’s.

Besides this, I need to see only goodness in all of His various and contradictory actions. If I believe Kabbalists in that they perceive the Creator as a single and benevolent source, I strive to correct my qualities in such a way that I perceive Him the same way.

If I tune myself like a violin, which, after being tuned, begins to play the right melody, then I will feel the Creator and He and I together will play on me. We will merge into one melody and one instrument.

(From the First Lesson of the North American Congress  10.16.09)

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Two questions I received about happiness:

Question: How can we let young people and their parents know that long-term happiness is achieved better by suppressing the ego and instead choosing the forces of love and bestowal? How can we teach this principle and model it?

My Answer: The only way to cause correction and to create a new, stable generation is by introducing Kabbalah’s method of education and upbringing into the schools.

Question: How can I make myself happy?

My Answer: The source of happiness lies in being closer to the Creator.

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Baal HaSulam Article: “Introduction to the Book of Zohar. Item 39″

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The Creator is your corrected quality. The Creator is revealed inside of the created being, and this is why in Hebrew He is called “Bo-re” (“Come and See”).

You have to reach your corrected state, your corrected self, and you will then see your corrected qualities and call them “the Creator.” You reveal the Creator only inside you, inside your corrected vessels of perception. You don’t feel anything outside of you.

We perceive all of reality, all that exists, inside us, in our sensations. This is why The Book of Zohar states that all the worlds and everything that fills them, including the Creator, exist in a person. It’s because they are felt by a person only within. Everything only seems to exist on the outside, outside of us. This illusion is given to us purposely, so that through the contrast of the perception of “outside” and “inside,” we will acquire a capability to see the world, ourselves, and the Creator from the side as well as inside. We will then be able to feel creation like He does: before it was created, in the process of being created, and in the future “higher states.”

Spiritual perception is built on feeling within the desires of “others,” which you adjoin to yourself by way of the desire to bestow and love them. In this manner, your desire grows, and to the extent that you unite with other desires, you continue to reveal a greater and broader reality.

In our world we reveal the “World of Assiya,” where each person is secluded inside himself, in his own egoistic desire. But when you begin to unite with the group, which is similar to your desire for the Creator, then to the extent that you unite with their desire, you will reveal the World of Yetzira.

By uniting with the environment into one whole desire, you reveal the quality of bestowal that you’ve attained, and that is called the “Creator.” The phenomena that you reveal in your corrected desire are called the Light, and its innermost source is called the Creator.

But then, a greater egoistic desire is revealed inside you that is your “self,” and by trying to unite with the group over that egoistic desire, you attain the World of Beria.

This is how we reveal all five worlds. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Science of Kabbalah” that all the worlds exist inside of a person. The science of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the created being, inside the created being, meaning, inside his corrected desires (senses). By revealing the quality of bestowal, we also attain their Source, their Founder. This innermost attainment is called the Creator.

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We have no chance of attaining the spiritual reality with our egoistic mind. It simply can’t perceive it! Spiritual perception is called attainment (Hasaga), which comes from the saying, “Attainment in the hand,” where the “hand” is the corrected egoistic desire.

This is why there are certain rules in the science of Kabbalah: “From Your actions, I will know You,” “The judge has no more than what his eyes can see,” and so on. These sayings indicate that the Upper World has to be revealed through clear attainment.

We go through 125 degrees of attainment, from the beginning to the end. Each degree consists of 25 individual Partzufim or states (see Baal HaSulam’s “Beit Shaar HaKavanot”). It turns out that each of the 125 degrees, called a “Sefira,” includes 25 of its own forms, and each of those also includes 25 of its own sub-forms, and so on, until Infinity.

This is impossible to calculate. There is no specific number that can designate them. Only on a higher level, where there are no letters or numbers, can we comprehend all of this diversity, because we will have new qualities and a new mind. Then, the number of forms will turn into a higher quality and we will perceive it naturally and simply.

Therefore, an infinite number of Partzufim, Sefirot, worlds or degrees of spiritual attainment, only seems infinite to our current mind. However, for a spiritual mind, everything is reduced to a simple desire for bestowal and love, where we feel adhesion with the Creator as one whole “I, where we, the Light, and the Creator are One!”

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A question I received: This weekend there will be a Congress in North America, and a week later – a Congress in Turkey. Everyone has the opportunity to participate. But what if a person has no desire to come?

My Answer: If a person realizes that he has no desire to come to the Congress, it’s a great point to begin the scrutiny of his egoistic nature and its correction. It all depends on what conclusion he makes: will he understand that his resistance to the Congress is help from above, a way of revealing his ego in order for him to rise above it? Or will he let himself meekly float on with the life’s current all the way until his death?

If I understand that the disturbance comes to me from the Creator, who is Good and does Good, and that there’s none else besides Him, then I begin to work with the disturbance in order to advance with its help. If I place myself between the disturbance, wanting to unite them within me, even if they fight with each other, then I will certainly come to the Congress (covered with scars from that battle).

No matter how strongly my ego is resisting within me, I will make that physical action. Perhaps I won’t want it deep inside, but I will still come! Then I will truly be doing good inner work.

If, however, I agree with my egoism and find all kinds of excuses why I’m not coming to the Congress, then I will miss the opportunity that was granted to me from Above by the Creator.

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Two questions I received on Barack Obama’s presidency:

Question: Barack Obama’s recent speech in Cairo stressed the basic message of all major religions: Love your neighbor as yourself. He spoke of the need for nations to cooperate on every level. This was the philosophy with which he came into office and which he continues to espouse. What is your opinion about the appearance of an American President with this kind of thinking at this point in the global crisis? Do you think the world is ready to begin this conversation?

My Answer: I don’t believe a word he or anyone else says.

Question: On numerous occasions you have posted remarks on “Obama.” My question to you is, in your opinion, how do you see the “change” in America, and President Obama’s new approach to the Muslim world and Israel?

My Answer: For the short term, this has helped America eliminate other nations’ hatred of it. But that’s all. In my opinion, this person is not yet the correct instrument of the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Creator’s Presidential Puppet
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Article: “Upbringing”

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