It’s a known fact that if you leave a small child alone in the woods, he will grow up into an animal. Similarly, if you place a child in a certain society, that is how he will grow up. A person grows and develops under the influence of his environment. The environment gives a person specific behavioral models and examples, and he does everything according to them.

How do we perceive our world? We do it according to how we have developed and what we have been taught to focus on. In other words, we do it according to our desires. This makes us see specific pictures of our world and to perceive them in a specific way, as well as to process them within and react to them.

However, when it comes to the spiritual world, we don’t have any behavioral models, images, sensations or understanding of what it is. So even if the picture of spirituality would somehow emerge before us, we wouldn’t be able to perceive it. And that is how things do stand: in fact, everything is already here in front of us, but we perceive only a small part of what exists, because we don’t have the appropriate models or images.

This is why Kabbalists write books for us telling us about the Upper World. They pull us up to that world, or to be more specific, they bring the spiritual world down to us so when we read about it and try to feel and understand it, we become filled with its models even if we don’t feel or understand them.

This happens by virtue of a special quality called Segula – miracle. We evoke these spiritual images upon us from afar even when we don’t clearly feel them. That is how we prepare ourselves for feeling them.

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All the desires that people have in our world have completed their development. Thus, nothing will develop further. Our world has come to a full stop. All our corporeal desires (such as for food, sex, family) as well as our social desires (for wealth, fame, power and knowledge) are in crisis because they have gone past the last stage of their development and are mutating into perverted forms.

Therefore, egoism can no longer develop in our world. Rather, it is starting to connect us, making us feel completely interdependent. From now on, we will begin to sense this connection more and more, even if nations and people will try to isolate themselves from one another. We will eventually reach the feeling of a complete, total connection, which will obligate us to love others as ourselves.

We will then discover that this is the solution to all our problems.

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A question I received: If one asks to be brought closer to the Light, is that not an egoistic request? After all, he is driven by the desire to feel better.

My Answer: That doesn’t matter. This is what is called Lo Lishma (to desire spirituality egoistically for oneself).

One wants to sense the spiritual world, to receive the spiritual life, the sensation of true reality, and to see that his life isn’t being wasted. After all, life passes by and no one knows how much time they have left, so one doesn’t want it to go by meaninglessly.

Initially one cannot think of anything other than his own profit. Consequently, if one doesn’t desire spirituality egoistically by envisioning the benefit it will bring him, he will never turn to it.

Therefore, the spiritual path begins with egoistic attainment (Lo Lishma). But then, under the influence of the Upper Light (Ohr Makif), one’s egoistic attitude toward spirituality is replaced by an altruistic one (Lishma).

That is why one’s ego is called “help against him” (Ezer Kenegdo), since it brings one to a state where he suddenly realizes that it is precisely his ego that stands in his way.

The same ego that used to help him and push him forward must now be destroyed. What must be destroyed is not the desires themselves, but only their egoistic intention. This is how one is gradually changed by the Light.

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There is only one law, one force that acts upon me from the spiritual field, from that endless ocean of Light. It wants only one thing, to attract me to its center, to the good.

My egoistic desire (my “charge”) constantly grows and develops and therefore I am getting more and more unbalanced with the spiritual field.

I am getting farther and farther away from the center of good. But the field doesn’t change, it is me that is changing. The changes for the worse are going on in me involuntarily and automatically. That is why my state is only getting worse.

I am not alone in this field, since there are seven billion people in the same situation.  We are small egoistic “charges,” and all of us to one degree or another feel “bad.”

At the end of our egoistic development we move away to the maximum, from the center of good to the most remote circle and begin to feel ourselves tied together.

This aggravates our already “bad” state. Each begins feeling himself dependent on all others. This forces him to hate all and suffer for all.

Our state is similar to labor pains. During the nine months of pregnancy (evolution of humanity) the mother (Nature) helps the fetus (ego) development to its fullest extent.

But when the complete (egoistic) development (global and closed) is reached, mother Nature forces the fetus to be born.

The global crisis is a pressure to the common fetus, humanity, in order to force it to be born spiritually.

The fetus must turn into a head down position (change priorities from receiving to giving) and begin attempting to exit from its egoistic state (help the mother give birth to him).

Only in this way will he accelerate the labor pains and  be born into the world of Light.

(From the Daily Lesson 10.19.2009)

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When we enter the spiritual world we will feel the spiritual parameters (time, space, one’s self, and life) in the same way we feel them in this world.

Long before Einstein and modern physics, Rambam wrote in the 11^th century that our entire material world exists below the speed of light, which means inside Earthly time and below spiritual time.

Today, it is not a problem to talk about space, time, and movement as temporary variables, which are relative to the observer and can even move backwards. Objectively, there are no time, movement and space as these are just impressions in our desire. If our desire is limited by receiving we feel ourselves in the boundaries of our world.

If our desire is not limited by absorbing into itself and acts outwards to bestow, than these parameters lose their limitations and there are no limitations in our perception.  This means there is no time, no movement and  no space.

(From the Daily Lesson 10.19.09)

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A question I received: In order to feel the spiritual we need to develop a sixth sense, which does not pertain to the physical body. How does it work?

My Answer: Everything that we feel is perceived by our senses, transformed into electrical and chemical processes in the brain, compared to what exists in the memory, discerned, and presented to the consciousness in the form of a ready-made image or concept.

My notion is built from two components which are, “I” and “what I perceive.” In addition, everything occurs in the desire. After all, the desire is the matter of the world.

The desire itself does not exist in the cells of the body. I only measure  its reaction to my desires and intentions within the body. I can measure the electrical and chemical processes in the body, but I only measure the reaction of the body this way, not what happens in the desire.

There is nothing with which I can feel or measure the desire itself. Let’s say I try a drink. I feel the taste, the smell, and I feel pleasure. We can measure different reactions of the body to this drink, but in any case this will be a measurement of the reaction, and not a measurement of the desire.

Therefore, any desire is virtual, in the material as well as in the spiritual worlds. The desire itself, whether it is egoistic or altruistic, does not exist in matter.

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

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In the News (from the BBC): “Depression looms as global crisis” – “WHO figures clearly show that the burden because of depression is likely to increase – so much so that in 2030 this will be the single biggest cause for burden out of all health conditions,” comments Dr. Shekhar Saxena of the Department of Mental Health of the World Health Organization. The scientific concept of “burden” is the measure of years lost of life due to early death or severe disability brought on by a certain illness, in this case depression. Dr. Saxena says depression is much more common than some other diseases that are more widely feared such as HIV-Aids or cancer.

My Comment: I wrote about this many years ago, saying that people will discover that their desires are empty, dark and bottomless. Drugs will no longer be able to quench these desires, and suicide won’t bring people freedom either, since the desires will be felt as eternal and imperishable, as something from which you can never free yourself.

Eventually we’ll be left with one choice: to accept Kabbalah as the method of fulfilling that desire. This method enables people to reach fulfillment by the Creator rather than fulfillment by the things in this world.

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Many people ask me: what should I do with my desires, and how should I fight the disturbances?

The breaking or corruption means that the unified creation (the soul, the Kli) divided or broke into many antagonistic parts. Their correction lies in gathering all of them together in spite of the force of their rejection. In other words, the force of unity (the Light, bestowal, love) must be stronger than the forces of mutual rejection (egoism, hate). These forces, however, don’t annul each other, as it is written: “The hero is not the one who kills the enemy, but who makes him serve him.”

Thus, we shouldn’t look for the evil inclination in our daily affairs, but only in our resistance to unifying our desires toward correction, which is equivalence to the Creator. As soon as a person’s ego matures enough for the person to begin correcting it, a point in the heart appears inside him, which is the beginning of his aspiration toward unity. He is then brought to the group, where the Creator bring together all those who are ripe for correction.

If a person participates in the group in order to unify the individual aspirations for the Creator into one strong desire for unity, this evokes the force of correction during the study. Then the force shines on the common aspiration for adhesion between us and the Creator, who is the force of bestowal and love. That sets off the process of “pursuit.”

A person feels as if he is riding a fervent stallion that’s running amok, carrying him forward, and the person is helpless to do anything. The stronger you become in the group, the quicker you correct this, and the faster and stronger you enter inside the group on the next level. This, in turn, reveals your ego to you even more and you find yourself flying ahead on the stallion’s back once again. That is how you quickly reach the end of correction.

Some day the race will be over, because the forces of the ego are not limitless. Each person has his own measure, the capacity of the soul, and he has to reveal and correct all of it.

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We cannot overpower our desires. We can only replace one desire with another, better one. After all, a person is a desire, and he cannot go against himself.

The only way to fight a desire is by using an external force – the force of the Light. Then the Light will fight your war for you. This is why the Creator said to Moses: “Let’s go to Pharaoh! I will fight him in order to demonstrate my power and might over him. I will show you all of this!” This is also why the Creator said, “I created the evil inclination and the Torah for its correction, because the Light that’s concealed in it returns one to the source.”

Therefore, one’s task is not to fight against oneself, but to make efforts in order to draw Light from the study of Kabbalah. You only have to see your own evil from afar and have the desire to part with it. It’s like the story of Moses who grew up in Pharaoh’s house but then separated from him.

You have received a point in the heart, called Moses. You now have to attract the Light, the Creator, to fight against this evil, against your heart – Pharaoh.

There are three components to this state:

1. A person’s evil inclination, his egoism, which hides deep within him. This is man’s nature, Pharaoh.
2. A new consciousness that starts to form in a person, the point in the heart, Moses. This is the realization that you have to correct your evil inclination,  otherwise you won’t attain spirituality.
3. The source of Light, the Creator. This is a book that talks about how to correct egoism using the Light. The book is a tool that enables you to attract the Light in order to correct your egoism, to change it and transform it to goodness.

Your evil inclination is inside you – it is Pharaoh. The force of the Light that you draw during the study is the force of the Creator. You, Moses, are in the middle, and you constantly wage this war, as it is written, “A person should always set his good inclination against his evil inclination.”

One’s point in the heart, Moses, grows up in Pharaoh’s house. Moses sits on Pharaoh’s lap, playing with his beard and trying on his crown. Moses was like an adopted grandson to the Pharaoh, and an adopted son to Pharaoh’s daughter, Batya. In other words, he was a prince.

But as soon as a person separates from his evil inclination, he starts to feel that they are opposite and hateful to one another. When Moses later comes to Pharaoh, he no longer speaks to him like a person he’s close to. He speaks to him like he is a stranger or an enemy.

This is how a person separates from his own nature, revolting against it and hating it. His only hope then is for the Light to come during the study of Kabbalah and change his nature.

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We are all made of the desire to enjoy – a material that cannot do anything on its own and is entirely dependent on the Light that created it. All the changes that happen to the desire to enjoy are performed by the Light.

Our development starts with the initial stage, where the Light influences the will to enjoy and causes it to mature. From the state of maturity onwards, the Light ceases developing the desire and waits for it to want this of its own accord, and then to ask the Light for it.

Today we are at the transition phase leading to our independent development. The Light no longer develops us, but waits for us to ask It to develop us further. However, our request has to correspond to the program of the Light’s future actions over us. On every stage, we have to ask the Light to do Its work.

If we desire for the Light to perform a specific action to us – to correct us from reception to bestowal, and if our desire is an exact match to the Light’s program, then the Light immediately performs this action. Thus we advance forward, traversing 1/125th of the path of our development.

Therefore, our entire work lies in understanding what exactly should we be asking for, what is our future state, and what do we have to attain on every stage? Then our desire will become the same as the desire of the Light, the Creator.

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