Connection Is Life

The “matter” of our desire is “dust,” and it doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is the level of connection between the particles of this “dust.” So first of all we have to perceive ourselves not just as the desire to receive. It is because this desire takes on 613 different special forms, and in each of them we want to enjoy only for ourselves.

This is quite clear: Everyone wants to enjoy something and this way separates and breaks apart the grain of their desire into 613 particles of self-enjoyment. Of course, no one can count this number and we use it as a figure of speech.

Then the work on our connection with other people begins. These “crumbs” actually remain lifeless, as it says: “From dust you came and to dust you shall return.” What counts is the special connection among the particles, which gives them life.

Scientists cannot understand them and cannot turn the still nature into life. They try to use electric discharge and other means, but a person cannot do such a thing. It isn’t alchemy; it is much more complex since the upper force has to be revealed in an actual form of life. A person can do it only if he summons the action of the Light that Reforms. In order to turn the still nature into the vegetative level, the vegetative level into the animate level, and so on, there should be a portion of the Light that Reforms each time.

Therefore, by the connection among us our murky particles discover life in this connection. They remain in the desire to receive of the still nature, but the mutual connection they create among them, the mutual guarantee, the mutual bestowal, the network they want to build with the help of the Light, turns into the vegetative level and in it flow the forces of life that stem from the source of life, from the Creator. Then from the vegetative level they change to more complex forms of the animate and the speaking levels of nature.

We should understand the basic structure, the essence of this system: The particles remain the same desires that were created as existence from absence, and the connection among them is existence from existence.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

The Family As The Center Of The Universe

There isn’t a big difference between preparing a person for creating a correct marital relationship and improving relationships with the rest in general. It is only necessary to take into account that the correct system of relationships in the family is a wonderful opportunity to rise to the level of a new corrected world. We all will have to do this to succeed in everything else: in business, finance, respect, power, science, and to be able to see the world and establish connections in it, to succeed in small transactions and international trade.

The family is the smallest and is closest to a person, and it is a permanently functioning lab in which he can work, each time changing himself and observing what kind of world opens to him at that time. After all, by trying to change his relationship with his spouse, he immediately will change the conditions, like in a physical or chemical experiment, and see the results accordingly. Then, he changes the conditions and gets a new result.

This is a scientific experiment, and our relationships with each other are the parameters. The entire world was constructed originally in this form when it comes to evolution, progress, and the final form that we must achieve whether we want it or not.

Nature has a program and a final goal. And apparently, that’s why there is the division of a small family, that is, a married couple and a wider family that includes their fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers from both sides, and all the other relatives. Then, an even wider circle follows, consisting of all our friends, and then the area where we live, the city, country, nation, and then the continent.

The entire world is divided into these concentric circles, like spreading waves, and they all come out and spread from the center, which is a couple. That is why, if we construct marital relationships correctly, we will be able to build all the other kinds of relationships. This will help us greatly in life.

If I know how to change myself and establish various new forms of relationship with my wife, and she reacts accordingly as my immediate environment, then I will learn how to work with the rest of the environment, at work and in all other places, to earn a good reciprocal relationship. This will ensure a person’s success in all the spheres where he functions.

In essence, this is the most important thing in life as it determines whether a person has money, honor, power, and overall success in life and health. It determines everything from the closest to the broadest social relationships in society, as well as in international relations between countries.

If we become new people who know how to control themselves correctly and attract a good attitude from others accordingly, we will not look so foolish, like children fighting in a sandbox. After all, countries and entire continents appear like this today. Then, a completely different picture will be revealed to us.

Thus, in fact, everything depends on how a person can change himself, and the most convenient and favorable change is possible if we take care of the family. If the spouses participating in the course of integral education will begin to work on their relationships and do the exercises, then they will solve any problems.

It is clear that we cannot eliminate all the problems in the world, considering the number of couples with whom we can work, because half the world is divorced or single people. However, married couples make up a sufficiently large number and have a huge impact on everyone else.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/18/12

Sacrificing Pride

After such a remarkable achievement when you managed to unite so much during my absence, you need to look at how to use these results, this connection. And here we must make a “sacrifice.”

Indeed, the obstacle may arise from two sides. Either we fall, despair, lose hope for the future, and feel the darkness in our desire to enjoy, or vice versa, we are glad of our strength, success, and attribute everything to ourselves. And this leads to more separation because it captivates us and veils our eyes so that people cannot see anything.

This is worse than despair. But in both situations, we need to learn how to use these extreme, polar states for advancement. A person must use two lines: the left and the right to come to the middle line.

This is a wonderful state, allowing us to feel everything “in the raw.” Self-love and pride live in everyone. And if we feel that we have achieved a new success, we must now attribute all that to the Creator. Not we, but He did this! He gave, and not we have achieved. He brought us to this feeling, and not we ourselves came to it.

The Creator acted in everything, as it is said: “I am the first, and I am the last!” If we analyze the results correctly, then we will come to greater adhesion, not disconnection. In our state today, this clarification is the most important thing.

It is good that we see and can go through this together and get valuable experience. I am glad that there was a situation that I had to leave, and you have succeeded in my absence due to the help from Above. Now, I can help you with advice from the side about how to use your inner state and to learn from it. The Creator’s help and mercy were manifested here. This is a great training and advancement.

However, we all need to beware of pride so that everything begins and ends with the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/12, Shamati #219

Looking At The Creator Through A Magnifying Glass

Everything was created by the Light that operates within the desire to receive that was created as something from nothing.The desire grows thicker as the Light operates on it like yeast on dough.

The difference between the different phases of the desire—the root, the first, second, third and fourth phases—stems from the different levels of bestowal of the Light on the point of something from nothing that exists in the actual roots, until its attributes become totally opposite to the Light. This indicates that the Light has made it as thick as the last, fourth level.

Actually, all this thickness is created by the attributes of the Light that turn into their opposite form as it breaks inside by the point of something from nothing. The darkness is a replica of the Light. The darkness is actually the same Light, but its posterior.

This is why, in Aramaic, “night” is called “orta” (which resembles the word “ohr,” meaning light in Hebrew). At night, everything is the same as during the day. The only difference is that the basic point turns the Light, turning it into its opposite.

It is as if a magnifying glass breaks the rays and turns everything upside down. On one side, there is light, and, on the other side, there is darkness. This magnifying glass is the same point of something from nothing.

So, it turns out that there is nothing in Malchut that doesn’t exist in Keter, but only in the opposite form. This oppositeness is called something from nothing. The Creator has created a replica, an imprint of Himself, called “the created being,” Adam and Eve, a seal and its imprint, and so forth.

We must use everything there is in our desire to receive, but in an opposite manner, to turn it, to insert the “nothing” into it instead of the “something.” When we want to attain this oppositeness, we annul the natural ego in us and become similar to the Light once again.

All the forms of the desire come from the Light that has imprinted itself in the central point of the created being. However, these forms are opposite to it so that in this oppositeness, we will be able to attain the Creator
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

A Discussion Is A Prayer

Question: How can you check that you really understand the lesson from the point connection with the group?

Answer: A person reaches connection out of despair, when he despairs of all his actions and sees that they will lead to nothing, and that he must do something. He thinks about himself, about his entire life, about the efforts he has made in vain, and eventually comes to the conclusion that he only can attain the goal through the group.

The group is a spiritual structure and not the faces that you see around you. It is a spiritual force that is revealed in a very realistic manner, like some safe shelter. It is like a “flying saucer” that as I enter it, I have a chance to succeed and if I am not in it, I have no chance.

A person must understand this clearly in order to keep this thought. He should know that by staying in the group, which he sees as a collection of spiritual forces, he will undoubtedly reach a good result. The group enables him to breathe, and without it, he has no access to the oxygen hose.

However, a person only can reach this decision when he feels despair from his own powers. Our discussions and workshops enable us to reach this conclusion faster. However, what I hear are people speaking about what they have read and not from their hearts.

I give a short introduction, and then I ask a question about it. The question may be a continuation of what has been said; it can be in contrast to it or somehow related to what has been said. However, it is all done intentionally. The answer shouldn’t come from the mind, but from the point of connection that should be attained within the discussion circle.

Then, the answer will be the answer to our prayer. The discussion must turn into a prayer that we all want to clarify and, together, to find the answer. During the discussion, each of the ten friends says something, and thus we complete one another. Each one annuls himself before the others by raising them and respecting their opinion. Thus, we build our self-annulment and the attribute of bestowal that is above all of us.

The group is not a physical assembly, but it acquires a spiritual value. This is because the annulment of the ego and the desire to be incorporated in the friends is already a spiritual action. The topic of the discussion spurs us on to clarify our unity, the connection, and the work. All this turns into a prayer (MAN).

Within the connection in the group that we attain by this prayer, we must receive an answer (MAD). The answer to the prayer of many (MAD) is called the center of the group. We feel collective warmth, a collective feeling, the force that supports us to such an extent that we are scared to come out of there. I don’t want to come out of there. I want to remain inside this center and to grow there. This is the purpose of the workshop, which you have to try to attain with every 15-minute question discussion.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Recovering From The Ego With A Sanatorium Regime

Question: We condemn the ego as the source of all our problems, but actually what is wrong with worrying about yourself? After all it is our basic natural attribute?

Answer: We should understand that if you constantly worry only about your self-benefit, you are actually harming yourself and limiting yourself in succeeding.

Here hides the evil that a person should feel to its full depth. Indeed, there are people who what to “exit themselves,” their limitations. They aspire to “exit the body,” to expand their horizons and to see the world, “what is it for and why? What else is there outside this life?”

This urge isn’t typical of everyone, but today when the whole world is suffering we should explain to people that the only way to be saved from the troubles is to strongly tie yourself to the environment. If you don’t do that the relations in the family, the country, and the world are destroyed; no one enjoys anything and everyone suffers.

The main thing is that because of these corrupt relations we cannot even provide ourselves food. The food systems, the climate, everything is destroyed. It is the same in the family where the relations are corrupt and nothing works anymore.

Question: But why should I stop caring about my wellbeing because of all that? All the creatures in the world try to feel good and to take care of themselves. Is this basic desire the source of all our problems, for example, family problems?

Answer: Suppose things don’t work in the family. The refrigerator is half-empty, there is a pile of dirty clothes and everything has gone wrong. By the way, the same thing is happening in the world—the lack of good mutual relations destroys everything. One part of humanity throws tons of food in the garbage, and the other part is starving. Billions are wasted on health care, but we are all suffering from some illness.

Clearly, this cannot go on. Therefore, a married couple that is ready for change comes to our courses, and we explain to them that the concern one feels for himself should change to concern for others, and in this case to the spouse.

“Love covers all sins,” this principle is fulfilled egoistically. No one is asking a person to detach himself from his ego, but only to establish a new attitude above it towards what is on the outside, towards one’s spouse, towards other people, towards the world, towards nature, towards the environment, etc.

We must perceive the world as “round,” as integral, which means to start perceiving everything that is outside your ego as your own, like a mother taking care of her child, then you will feel good.

The whole idea is to use your ego correctly and wisely, not to get rid of it. A couple that wants to succeed egoistically continues to adhere to this. Only the approach changes: Considering what is going on in the world and in the family, there is only one method—to rise above your ego and to use it in the opposite direction. Examine your spouse like a mirror of your own attributes and accordingly operate the ego in the opposite manner. Then instead of the evil inclination, it will appear as the good inclination.

The main point here is to create an “incubator,” which means the right environment. No special efforts will be needed by a person if he lives in this “green house.” By its influence, the environment will raise the concern for others in his eyes and lead him in the right direction. Then this approach to life will become natural for him. In the same way a child readily accepts the morality of his group. Yes, there are difficulties: For example, married couples need “redesigning.” But these changes will be relatively easy and pleasant like recovering in a sanatorium.

Of course, a person must also participate in the process, in his feeling and understanding, of his own free will. His support is essential, he cannot just come and say “change me.” but one way or the other, he can certainly agree and nothing super-human is required of him.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/11/12

Everything Is Attained By Connection

Question: How does our connection become the basis for the revelation of the spiritual levels?

Answer: Every level is a world that you feel, a world that is woven by the connection among all the souls. The first connection that has come from the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) gradually diminished until it was shattered and became totally detached in our world. Now, from this point, the ascent in the same levels of connection begins, and it is the only thing you have to reveal.

The “matter” of the souls is the desire to receive and the connection among them is the system we study about. The Ten Sefirot, the spiritual Partzufim, are all the essence of different methods of mutual connection of the souls between them.

On the whole, a whole body is thus formed as we rise to Malchut of Ein Sof, and all the connections are 100% bestowal without any obstacles and deficiencies. Then all the resistance in the transition among us disappears and the connection is immediately fulfilled in infinite speed. This is the state of Ein Sof.

The adhesion indicates a simple thing: What I have at a certain moment, you have too, and vice versa. This communication is unlimited. It isn’t confined to time and the resistance of the ego. The “resistor” among us disappears and our desires cooperate freely and to their full extent.

Question: How should it be expressed in the workshops?

Answer: Our adhesion during the workshops is an effort: We want to unite so strongly, as much as we can imagine, so that each one will lose his feeling of self and we will feel one desire, one thought, one whole. By these efforts, from the point of unity, we think about a solution to the question we were given by the teacher. The solution is within the connection.

Therefore, during the workshop we yearn to find the answer through the unity. Each time we search for a solution, we want to attain it by the unity, without using our logic. After all, we are not going to logically examine the words of the Kabbalists.

Without connection, there is no point in sitting in a circle. So what do we need it for? For an intellectual conversation or a scientific debate? No, the mission is given only in order to create a new quality. Then by feeling the collective quality, you find the solution.

The workshop is only meant to create a collective vessel that belongs to an upper level. We try to reach it as hard as we can, but if there is no solution, it means that we have not succeeded.

There is no point mentioning the connection while we are in the process, it has to be the goal from the beginning. Can we come to a workshop not in order to connect, and in this connection find the next level or at least find the solution to the question that leads to it?
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

A Priceless Sense Of Shame

Question: Suppose something happened to me and I feel such a sense of shame that I’m ready to disappear. What should I think of at this point? Should I think of the goal?

Answer: That doesn’t help. What does it mean, “I should think of” or not? You must be prepared in advance for all sorts of influences from the environment, books, friends, the group, and other things that are the effect of the common field on you so that you are reminded of the goal. That is, you set up an external “reminder” for yourself, otherwise you won’t remember. You begin to associate the goal with what happened to you. And that’s the main thing. It means that you already know that what happened was intentional and happened for a reason.

Where do I feel the pain and shame? In my egoism. So, I have to rise above it. Or conversely, let me stay with the feeling of shame because it directs me towards the goal. Then I’m ready to experience it all the time in myself so as to not forget about the goal, to be associated with it, and to move towards it. And let my sense of shame be stronger and stronger, so that I will move toward the goal and it will get closer and closer.

It’s here that we begin to deal with the re-evaluation of values, and thus rise. From now on what will dominate the movement, achievement, and attainment of higher states of love and bestowal above the feeling of egoism as evil and everything that’s in it is basically shame.

Question: Is the mechanism that you described suitable for the 99% of the population?

Answer: Not only for the 99%, but for everyone because the desire to receive is the only matter.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/30/12