Open Your Eyes: You Are Harming Yourself

Today, we speak about a totally different attitude toward the world, toward people, and toward ourselves, as an integral system, which nature brings us to; it reveals our society in a crisis of relationship and mutual connection.

If we really look at things carefully and analyze this fact, we would discover that by acting against others, I actually act against myself with even much more intensity than my negative influence. I influence the environment, its management, its powers, and opinions, and it comes back to me like a boomerang from the whole system that I currently face.

I am like a gear that is now stuck and stops the movement of the entire mechanism, but the resistance I feel is the general movement of the whole mechanism, and I have to oppose it. Eventually, I feel powerless, empty, and with no motivation in the face of what I see: that I cannot succeed in anything and that the world is increasingly against me in every aspect, especially in the social and ecological aspects. Thus, I don’t succeed in anything.

If we could see this closed system, if it were revealed to us like in a science fiction movie where you suddenly see the whole picture in depth and to what extent we are mutually connected to one another like cogwheels, then, from this picture, we would start to behave differently. We lack the feeling of closeness, of connection, and of integrality. If we had this feeling, we would be forced to change because no one would harm others when he would be affected ten times more negatively. The same ego protects us from that.

If I see a bully on the street, I don’t start fighting with him, but cross the street. In the same way, I don’t try to act against a rich, powerful person because I know he would grind me into dust, and no one would know about it and help me. That is, a person chooses the field in which he can express himself, win, and make a profit, and he doesn’t try to jump above his level since he sees that it is doomed to fail.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/29/12

Studying Myself In The Mirror Of The World

In our world we are in contact with physical bodies, and it seems to us that we have free choice, independence, and that we ask and receive answers and responses. But afterward, we discover that we simply were standing in front of a mirror and there were no others. My attributes seems to be as humanity, as a great world around me with which I, as if, work.

Therefore, we need to understand that what we do to others, we do to ourselves. It doesn’t just come back to you in roundabout way, but you directly act against yourself. Everything that you see around you are your own internal qualities extended outward.

And this is the only opportunity to gradually discover yourself. Since if we would discover within us that same desire that the Creator created us with, we would constantly be stuck within it, then we wouldn’t try to examine it, but we would grasp it as a good thing, and we would only think of how to fill it. We would care about it like a loving mother who is not worried about anything, only that her child will be fat and healthy. She doesn’t criticize his personal attributes.

Thus we are in this special reality. It is said, “A person is a small world,” and everything that is inside, he sees outside. All the world that surrounds you is you, yourself, inversely as if it spilled out. And now, since you view everything existing as if outside yourself and relate to it egoistically, you can try with all of your egoistic attributes to attain love.

The result is that everything was created only for the purpose of its correction. If all of these attributes would stay within you, you wouldn’t be able to discover them and correct them. And thus you wouldn’t receive the Kli (vessel) for the disclosure of the Creator. But because all of this appears to be outside of you, you are able to see it and clarify the relation to it, to discover it 613 times greater, and in this way to discover the Creator. Thus, within you, only the “point in the heart” can be discovered.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, Writings of Rabash

Learning The Art Of The Creator

Question: Why is the first phase after the root phase the still nature? Why didn’t it all start from another phase?

Answer: Because this the lowest phase that includes everything in it. There are no internal differences in it and so it cannot differentiate anything on the outside. We are speaking about the upper Light only with regard to the created being’s vessels. Therefore, still nature is the first phase in which the created being’s desire receives only the force of restriction that doesn’t allow it to discover more that it discovers now.

The force of restriction operates on the vessels and on the Lights that can be revealed in them. It operates on everything. The question is: What does this force influence? Does it influence the center of the created being or his limits? In other words, on what do I operate by the restriction—on my desire to receive or on the Light?

Of course, I influence my desire. I can never operate the Light.

I restrict the desire to receive and keep it. Thanks to that it doesn’t “jump” on anything. Thus I limit myself in order to receive the Light only in this manner. It is because I know that I don’t have the power for more than that, and so I constantly “keep the limits,” keep my ego in a neutral state.

This is the still phase: The ego is constantly developing, and I constantly keep it on the same level of the still. Actually, it is a great and positive work that takes place in different forms. But by its nature, it belongs to the still level: By myself I put my desire into the regime of the still, where my desire stays the same.

Within this desire I work in relation to the Creator. What can I do? I annul myself inside Him. Thus, I can be in the Creator and adhere to Him, I can be incorporated in Him, which is the attribute of the still level. I don’t allow myself anything except for self-annulment. Imagine that you are inside a great force and you have no other choice and this is the only way you can hold on.

On the other hand, it prepares me for the next level of the vegetative. This is because there are constant changes taking place inside me, which grow according to the five phases of the still level. We may think, so what if instead of a tiny pebble I become a large precious gem? But this isn’t everything yet: The changes I have been through have taught me what it means to grow. The ascent in the phases of the still level has given birth to a mind inside me, since I had the chance to compare things and to get used to the actual fact of instability.

I have restricted the growing pleasure time after time, but at the same time I followed the changes, until I understood that I can really change, and then I moved on the vegetative level.

Thus, we speak about a qualitative development and not about a quantitative development: At the end of the still phase, in its last fourth phase, I already understand from the experience I had that I can change by myself, consciously and purposefully. Then the opportunity to move from the last phase of the still to the phase of the vegetative is born. It is here that its initial point is created by the changes in the desire.

Every such change comes from the Creator in the form of the reviving force. I could never find the preliminary conditions for growing inside me. Therefore the Creator doesn’t just develop me; He inserts His force of creation inside me so that I will resemble Him. As a result of this development, we and the Creator become partners in the creation. His goal is not to increase the desire to receive, by putting it through a series of changes, but rather to teach me His art. What is more He teaches me in a qualitative manner.

Thus, thanks to everything we go through, we attain His actions, according to the rule: “From Your actions we shall know You.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Good For Humanity

Question: What skills does a person acquire when he deals with the integral method? How is possible to use it in the family, for example, or in places outside the integral circles?

Answer: He will see to what extent the integral system is essential for the world, and how positive and desirable it is, how economical it is and what we can save by it, and what we can do by using it. This means that it is actually a tool for changing all of our society, our life, and our attitude to nature, to production, to economy, to commerce, to education, to everything.

By gradually changing the relationships among us, we totally can change our life; it is true about every aspect, in production, everywhere. By creating new, mutual relationships that, at the same time also resemble nature and are in harmony with it, we will receive the right response from nature itself.

It seems that nature is something inanimate, and although there are parts of the vegetative and the animate levels in it, we generally perceive all of space as still. We don’t understand that this is how it is revealed only relative to us.

We don’t feel that behind all this there is a plan, a program of forces, a thought that manages us, leading us somewhere in the process of evolution. We, thus, become harmonious with the upper plan, with the upper force, and actually summon goodness in all our actions.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/28/12

Leaping Over The False Clothing

It’s a very simple principle, but it’s very hard to keep it since it constantly disappears. It is said: “There is none else besides Him,” and “His honor fills the land,” but at the same time everyone is asking: “Where is the Creator? Where can we see, feel, and discover Him?”

His revelation is the real goal of our life, although we don’t understand or feel it. It seems as if there are different goals along the way, but it isn’t true. Behind everything that we want, (food, sex, family, money, respect, control, knowledge, spiritual attainment, and eventually everything a person is attracted to) there is a concealed desire for the Light, for the Creator, which includes and brings a person all the fillings.

So even the smallest desire that is evoked in a person, is eventually for the Creator, but it’s concealed from us. I don’t perceive or feel that for which I really yearn. I want to rest, I want to enjoy life with friends and family, but behind all this there is always the Creator.

We are chasing different images and their clothing, but our true yearning is actually only for Him. What should we do so that we won’t be fooled by all these false garments and so that we won’t spend our life searching in empty corners, smashing our heads against the wall, and wasting our time? After all this can take forever and lead to nothing.

The process we go through teaches us that we will never be able to be filled egoistically! All the enticing clothings are false and fake. How can I discover that behind all clothing, even when I want to enjoy the children and the family, tasty food or rest, I am enjoying the Creator? The difference will be felt immediately.

If by receiving pleasure from an ordinary filling I am aware that I am actually enjoying the Creator, my enjoyment will be whole. It’s possible, but we have to enjoy in the same way He does, to neutralize the external clothing and to enjoy in order to bestow upon Him, to repay Him by this pleasure, so that we will enjoy each other mutually. Then the clothing will disappear and instead you will see the pleasure itself in its revealed form that will be revealed in your clothing.

So we have to constantly evoke the truth in the group by reminding each other that we are yearning for the revelation of the Creator, the revelation of the attribute of bestowal, and this is what we actually enjoy and not its clothing. The main thing is the Creator’s honor, which means His greatness, the greatness of the attribute of bestowal that constantly takes care of us.

The Creator has created different false goals and clothing that will constantly draw us until we reach Him. These false clothing attract us to the way of suffering. If these clothing help us receive the clothing of bestowal, the Light of Hassadim, we advance by the way of the Torah, the way of the Light.

We always work vis-à-vis the Creator and we should try to change the clothing: to take upon ourselves the Creator’s clothing in which He conceals Himself and to hide our desire to receive under this clothing. Then we will adhere to the Creator, which means that we will leap over the false clothing. I annul the clothing He conceals Himself with, and it’s as if I get closer to Him rather than to this clothing by dressing my desire to receive with this clothing. Then my intention, my soul, is adhered to the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12, Writings of Rabash

The Commandments Are The Steps Of Unity

Question: What is the meaning of the demand indicated in the books to accustom oneself to fulfill the Torah and the commandments, which ultimately will help us obtain a second nature—love of the neighbor?

Answer: The actions of correction that I want to implement are called the commandments. First, I must reveal inside of myself what I need to correct, as it is written, “It is impossible to implement a commandment if, at first, one has not violated it,” meaning that first of all we reveal the lack, the evil inclination inside of ourselves, and then we see what we need to correct.

The correction of the desire to enjoy for the sake of bestowal is called the implementation of the commandment because that is the precept of the Creator. But to realize this is possible by means of the Light, the force that is called the Torah.

That is, I am given all of the conditions for the revelation of my egoistic beginning, working relative to friends and clarifying my relationship to them. And when I am revealing my ego, then I understand what needs to be corrected since this is the real evil because it separates me from the upper force, from the Creator.

Then I use the force of the group. If we have the desire to unite for the sake of receiving the force of correction, the Torah, then we receive it from above and it unites us. The steps of our unity are called the commandments, which have been implemented. That is, I am implementing these successive portions of the precepts of the Creator, His will relative to me, and, in the end, I arrive at the fact that my desire to enjoy becomes a giving one, and, according to the similarity of qualities, the force of bestowal, the Creator, is revealed inside of it. All of this is realized right in the spot where I am located on this earth and not somewhere in the heavens as it seems to us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

The Brain: A Secret That Is Inaccessible To Science

Question: Current studies show that the neurons in the brain become flexible when they connect. The “matter” remains the same, but the mutual connections in it change. Is it possible to draw an analogy between the “matter” of the brain and the “matter” of the desire to receive?

Answer: We will never be able to understand the way the brain operates by using the standard “corporeal” scientific tools. I suppose that scientists already understand this. The brain depends on its current state, and so the data in this field hardly allows researchers to arrive at any statistical rules, or to find some consistency. The brain isn’t just “a kilo and half of gray matter.” It constantly changes and although we classify the functions of all its parts, they can still perform totally different functions.

At the “head” of the spiritual Partzuf, where the decisions are made, there is a Direct Light and a Returning Light, the connection between the Creator and the created being. It is the same in our brain, but on a different level. So if we don’t discover the Creator part in us, we will not be able to discover the principles of the brain’s work. This is because half of the picture can hardly be seen in the fog and we don’t know what operates it.

On the whole, we can compare our brain to a detector, to a receiver that receives signals from space around us. So there is no great significance to examine it detached from this space. If we study only the brain itself and leave its connection with the source of the data out of the picture, we will never know anything. This is because our brain perceives important external information from some field.

We are built in a definite way: Our nature is divided into the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, we divide ourselves into Partzufim, Sefirot, to parts according to the thickness of the desire and the purity of the Masach (screen), but actually in spirituality it is all one, and everything is one wholeness where we exist. It is where the past, the present, and the future are, the three stages of our development, everything is there.

The brain activity is like a receiver or a mutual activity within a system, which I perceive only to the extent of my own bestowal. We may say that the brain is part of the general system. But actually the brain, the mind, is spread over all of Ein Sof (Infinity), which a person has to actually attain. In the meantime we only feel bits of it.

I don’t think that science will continue to follow the old approach. There will come a time when scientists will stop, change their approach, and begin to discover an upper level, just as in the past humanity moved from using a steam engine to using an internal combustion engine. Brain researchers will want to rise to the “layer of information” that is above our world. It is only from there that they will be able to carry on with their studies, whereas the current approach will lead to nothing.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Ice Cream For Everyone

We must stop dealing directly with our desire, trying to fill it through the different systems we have created. It simply doesn’t work. It worked partially for a while, meaning intentionally in order to let us reach the shattering, and the full recognition of our evil. But now we’ve reached a state in which we can come to the conclusion that we can’t advance this way anymore. We have to rise above the old approach, above the attempts to fill ourselves and to manage our lives egoistically. We will never succeed this way and so we must rise to the level of bestowal.

If we don’t rise from the attribute of receiving to the attribute of bestowal, we won’t be able to reach fulfillment. We must understand that we cannot continue with the old way. The new approach is: only the connection of everyone, not of some on the account of others. We can fulfill ourselves only if we unite.

It’s as if nature is confronting us with a condition, a new egoistic law that says: “You can have a wonderful life, everyone will receive fulfillment and will be happy, but only if you are all equal.” It’s like a mother who says to her children, “Do you want some ice cream? You will get it only if you are connected and don’t fight. If not, no one will get anything.”

This is how nature calls us to advance to equality, so that within the equality we will be able to discover an even greater opportunity. The main point is not the ice cream that you will get when you reach equality; you are being drawn by the ice cream so that you will reach equality and feel that it’s the highest value. When you eat the ice cream, you already enjoy it from a state of equality and connection. You suddenly discover that the ice cream that is eaten together when you are connected is 1000 times tastier than the ice cream you ate by yourself.

So what does nature want? It wants you to feel that you have received a new vessel, a new desire that enables you to discover a taste that is a 1000 times greater, NRNHYinstead of Nefesh. You become free of the limitations of life and death and begin to exist in an infinite space. You reach a new perspective, a feeling of limitless freedom from the limitations that the ego imposed on you.

You feel how wonderful it is to connect with others. The ice cream was just an excuse, a trigger that brought about the changes, the discovery of the new integral desire. This is the process the whole world has to go through now.

We are going through this process consciously, as we understand where we’re headed. Therefore, we have to help the rest of the world, by explaining to them that they shouldn’t try to reach connection in the old ways anymore. They have all failed. Let’s try a new approach, a very simple approach: If we unite, we will succeed.

For others it will be a simple egoistic goal: to unite in order to succeed. But because we organize it and we are together, through us they will receive another filling. The desires of the world are “round” and our desires are “straight.” So when they connect to us they will also receive this straight form, just like a musical instrument that fills its bag. After all, the “circle” already contains the straight form that has the Masach (screen) and works with the Light. Then everyone will start feeling that it’s this integral form that gives the special filling, NRNHY, and thanks to our connection, the world will advance.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/02/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Connection Is The Beginning Of Everything

Nothing will be solved if we don’t start from the point of our connection. It is the foundation and everything should start from it. It is to this that we add every word, every attribute, everything that we want. It is to this point of connection.

Therefore, we mustn’t activate a single thought before we determine this point. You first must stabilize it within you and start thinking about how to strengthen it, how to expand your control over other attributes, how to turn it into a circle.

This is fulfilled by the environment. If you create this point and work in order to incorporate the friends in it, it expands correctly, and you don’t forget what is really important.

Question: So, why are the states prolonged? Why do we feel heaviness?

Answer: You feel heaviness in your corporeal, egoistic vessels. When you feel better and things are easier, you are happy. On the other hand, if you advanced mutually connected to others, you would feel happy when you feel heaviness.

The question as to why the states are prolonged is an egoistic question. A person who advances doesn’t have such thoughts. He asks himself one thing only: “How can I be sure that in my current state I bestow without any self benefit? I only need a sign that I really am bringing You pleasure, a sign that is totally detached from me. I don’t need any sensations or that things will be easier, I just need to know that I am doing the right thing.” This is bestowal.

Question: What is the sign that I have succeeded?

Answer: It is according to the Light of Hassadim that you receive. It won’t give you anything except the belonging to bestowal. Then, I will understand and feel that the Creator knows nothing about my efforts and my achievements, and neither does anyone else, and I feel even happier about that. It is a sign that I am truly detached from my ego.

Question: How can we fix such an attitude in our hearts?

Answer: You can do that only by the general opinion of the society. We need to know what is “in the air” about bestowal, which is the lack of different, opposing demands. I only need the right direction and the powers to go through it, and the road itself is like a one way road.

Then, by correcting my vessels this way, I ascend to a new level and begin to enjoy in order to bestow. This cannot be described in words. I receive in order to bestow and enjoy, but my pleasure isn’t felt in the ordinary desires, although they are all there.

Question: What is “the general opinion of the group?”

Answer: It is the general tendency that puts bestowal above everything. Everyone must simply know that this is how they should speak about it although they raise the importance of the Creator in the eyes of one another artificially.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”