A question I received: Sometimes you can’t hear the lesson! That is, you’re listening to it, but you don’t hear it! Sometimes you sleep through it… And sometimes it seems that you understand every word, and it’s simply a revelation!

What determines one’s sensations at the lesson? Is it the lesson itself, the people who are present at the lesson, the person, the material being studied, or something else?

What can I do to hear the lesson like I did the first time, when I couldn’t hold back the tears?

My Answer: I understand you. This happens to everyone. It’s because the Creator only gives a person the initial desire for the spiritual goal: He awakens one’s point in the heart. And He brings a person to the source (a book, a teacher, a group, the Internet), and no more than this. And it’s up to a person to continue developing this desire he received from above, to develop it to the size of the World of Infinity.

This is impossible to do unless you study Kabbalah in the correct environment. (See item 155 of Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” and also his article “The Freedom.”) Otherwise you will spend many years eating yourself up.

In addition, it’s very important to prepare for the lesson. The preparation begins before going to sleep. You should fall asleep with a Kabbalistic book in your hand. Wake up half an hour before the lesson and attune yourself to the lesson. If you don’t attune yourself, the lesson will be ineffective.

You should go through this period more energetically: from the point to the Machsom. Good luck!

Related Material:

Preparing for the Lesson

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A question I received: Can a person who gave everything he had to dissemination, inner work, the group, and love of friends, who participated in congresses and worked with all his strength and desire, suddenly leave this path and go to another Rav? How can someone be so passionate about this and sacrifice himself for the goal, and at the same time look for another teacher?

My Answer: Everything is possible. I’ve seen all kinds of things. Every person has his own path and others shouldn’t interfere with it, including myself. We should help and give to people, but after that everything depends only on the person himself. One’s spiritual development is one’s own choice; there is no coercion when it comes to one’s spiritual path. This is the only approach that will prove to be genuine and will attract everyone, and only this attitude to one another conveys true care and love, and corresponds to the law of Nature.

The goal of creation is for every person to attain complete equivalence with the Creator through free choice. Therefore, we can only bring the method to the surface, offer people the group and our forces, but the choice is up to the person! If you ask people who’ve been in the group and studying with me for fifteen to twenty years already, they’ll tell you that I never ask questions even when someone leaves the group or disappears all of a sudden. A person’s soul should teach him how to correct it.

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A question I received: Why is He concealed? Sometimes this game of “hide and seek” brings me to despair… I’m trying with all my strength to advance toward the quality of bestowal and the revelation of the Creator, but my earthly life really interferes and makes me curse a lot. How can I accept the fact that everything that’s coming from above helps me get closer to the Creator, if He keeps sending me endless blows? I know that He’s doing this out of love, but it pushes me away instead of attracting me. I’m sick and tired of all these games and lies already! Who can I appeal to if He’s the one setting all of this up for me?

My Answer: There’s no one to appeal to, other than the force (Light) that can correct you if you want it to. This force exists in nature and it will influence you to the degree that you will aspire to change from a “receiver” to a “giver.” Moreover, there’s no one to curse at. It’s all nature! The force that can change you can be found only in Kabbalah studies (study in a group and dissemination), using the books of Baal HaSulam. This force is called Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). So aspire to it!

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Lesson: Shamati Article #4: What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels in Annulling Before the Creator in the Work? [26-06-06]
Lesson: Shamati Article #4: What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels in Annulling Before the Creator in the Work? [26-06-06] – Transcript

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A question I received: The more Kabbalah is revealed to the world, the more the forces controlling this world are revealed. Does this mean that we’re going to see more and more of the world’s problems resolved if we realize that we’ve created an illusion for ourselves in this world? I am particularly referring to cancer. With our egoism we have created a terrorist in our body that we can’t control. We have built a massive industry around this illusion, including our educational system, medicine, fund raising, government, the pharmaceutical system, and health care industries. The pain and suffering that have been created by this illusion are just as enormous as the stress and anxiety it has created in the world. The realization that cancer is a force in the body that’s controlled by the brain makes it something that can be fully controlled by the mind.

My Answer: Certainly everything we perceive is a picture created by us, by our egoism (the picture of our world) or by the quality of bestowal (the picture of the Upper World). How we “depict” it depends on us, on our desire + intention. However, it is impossible for an individual to “depict” the picture of the world – it can only be done with everybody together, or in the very least, in a group. This is because spirituality is “depicted” in the connection between us, between the souls.

Incidentally, it’s the same with our egoistic world – we depict (imagine) it in our attitude to others, i.e. in selfish desires. Souls do not see the picture of the world within themselves; they see it in what’s between them, in the quality of the connection between them. Therefore, because of your dependence on others, the other cogs in the system, you cannot use Kabbalah to cure yourself or put yourself into a comfortable state. Moreover, as long as there remain to be people needing correction, disasters and diseases will also remain. We will “depict” one beautiful picture only when we (i.e. humanity as a whole) correct ourselves together.

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Questions I received on descents in the spiritual path

Question: “There isn’t a righteous man who hasn’t sinned.” What happens between the levels, when one is in a descent and everything one had attained – the Light and the Creator – falls into the Klipot? How can one live with this difficult feeling?

My Answer: As Baal HaSulam writes in the book Pri Hacham (Letters), one needs to be happy about a descent, because it is the revelation of your uncorrected properties.
And if the evil is being revealed in you, this means that you already have the strength, the understanding, and the ability to correct such properties and rise above them to the next degree. Therefore, there’s no reason to feel down even during the greatest descent! The greatest punishment is for you to become disconnected from the Creator in your thoughts and sensations.

Question: On the spiritual path, how can I overcome the state when I feel lack of energy? You know what your purpose in the world is, and you try to connect what’s happening to the Creator, but you still don’t have energy to do anything, you can’t cope with the corporeal world and you simply can’t do anything at all, like you’re trying to disappear and not feel anything…

My Answer: There are many states like this and they are very diverse. It’s in our power to accelerate the speed at which we go through them, but it is impossible to cancel them, and you shouldn’t ever think that they are unnecessary. They are all inside you and have to manifest, and you must justify their manifestation and rise above them. How? You should realize that everything you perceive comes from the Creator, because “there is none else besides Him.” And everything is done for your own good, because “The Creator is good and does good.” The best way to practically, correctly and quickly incorporate this within you is to participate in the group and disseminate.

Question: I have different problems, and I don’t know whether they are psychological or a consequence of studying Kabbalah. What would you advise me to do?

My Answer: If people have psychological problems (mental illnesses), then usually they aren’t allowed to study Kabbalah, or they may study under a doctor’s supervision and a special attitude from us. But if you are mentally healthy, then the only thing that can help you is to increase your studies. It’s because every ascent is preceded by a descent, and you shouldn’t miss the descent, but ascend through it, with an effort, elevating the greatness of the goal and the certainty that the Light of studying will elevate you.

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The Colombian group had a mini-congress in the city of Bogotá. Our students from all parts of the country gathered at this meeting, to spend the weekend together with their friends. With the help of group lessons, songs, and meals, they united and got to know each other better.

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Two questions I received about men’s and women’s desires

Question: As I understand, a man has to feel all the women’s desires as his own, and then ask for their correction. But what about a woman – does she feel only her own desire? And does she then need to transfer it to the men?

My Answer: A man should feel all the desires of the whole world as his own, and ask for their correction. A woman can feel only her own desire and aspire to transfer it to the men’s group, to those who aspire to the Mutual Guarantee (Arvut).

Question: If a woman is Malchut, the will to receive, then how can she attain the quality of bestowal?

My Answer: She does it by transferring her will to receive to the men’s part, the will to bestow, and this results in the desire “to receive for the sake of bestowal,” which is equivalent to bestowal.

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Two questions I received on handling relationships

Question: What do I need to do to stop seeing only those things that separate me from other people? It is difficult for me to see the good deeds that people do; I get stuck on their bad deeds, even though I realize that this disconnects me from my friends in the group. I must mention that this mainly happens in relation to men, including my husband. Even though this also happens with women, but when it comes to women I manage to find balance. What should I do?

Question: In one of your talks about relationships, you said that when a couple has a disagreement about something, the best thing to do is keep quiet and not argue, and this silence will lead to a new understanding of one another and a new level in your relationship. You will also set an example for your partner. Can you please talk about this some more? This is a sore spot in my relationship, and I think that there are many couples going through this.

My Answer: Staying silent in an argument, compromising, causes your partner to react in the same way. Compromising leads to union and understanding, an understanding that we need to unite over our egoism. In such a way, we develop respect for one another, even for each other’s weaknesses, and understanding of each other’s nature, and this, in turn, leads to love, regardless of the obvious uncorrected properties of each partner. It says in King David’s Psalms: “Love covers all sins!” That is, the sins still remain, but the two of you learn to rise over them and unite there.

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A question I received: What is death and how can a person stop being afraid of it?

My Answer: When a person identifies himself with the animate level (the body), then he is afraid of its death, since he also sees this as the end of his “I’s” existence. But if he’s already begun identifying himself with the soul, that is to say, he generally begins perceiving himself in his inner life, he feels his “I” beyond the animate level (the body), he perceives himself through the point in the heart, unites with the points of others and starts living in others, then he attains the state of confidence (of course, under the influence of Ohr Makif), and knows that even if the physical body will die, he has already acquired a new, spiritual body! And at the moment of death he perceives his physical body as if he is being undressed and is parting with it. In general, it’s a psychological problem. It’s because one feels oneself as living in the body – in one’s desires. The main solution lies in interacting in the group. It’s because when you start perceiving the desires of others (your “neighbors”) instead of your own desires, then you acquire an eternal body or desire outside of you.

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A question I received: I participated in a Kabbalah seminar in Tallinn, Estonia on the 15th of June. At that meeting, I expressed my resentment of the following statement: “During a descent, one can progress even more than during an ascent, since at that time a person only uses the force of the group, which is always greater than his own force. One’s friends in the group were selected by the Creator Himself. If you will love them, then He will love you.”

I am used to moving forward and achieving things on my own. Maybe this is wrong, but that’s how it is for the time being. People singing together, holding hands, and singing songs – I feel that not only do they fail to see or know the text, but they even sing without any spirit – so what should I do?

I put more spirit into writing a letter to a woman I love or looking into her eyes. I can’t let myself be part of a group yet. Maybe I’m not ready for a group yet and I have to work on my own, as long as the group is foreign to me. On the other hand, talking to individual people at that evening in Tallinn was a pleasure. But when it came to singing and hugging, I wanted to leave!

My Answer: Everyone is repelled by this at first. Some people are social by nature, and some are loners. Personally I belong to the latter, so I understand you very well. What should you do? You should participate as much as you can. And after that your life will direct you, because when you make efforts and don’t receive a result, you will understand that there is no way out, that our correction lies in the union of souls. You don’t have to hug others or have a good singing voice. You should study and disseminate, and the rest will come in due time. Don’t force yourself.

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