The Best Example Of All

Question: What is the right approach to teaching children?

Answer: This is a special task because we are teaching those who are not familiar with the world at all yet. And the most important thing here is to organize an environment for them. Without an environment, it is very difficult to teach a child our method. A child needs a connection with other children and together they have to be organized into a group.

In the process of studying they have to sit in a common circle and feel that they are strong only when they are united together. A teacher is not really a teacher, but an educator, a mentor. He is like an older friend of the children. Sitting in a circle with them, he conceals his grown-up understanding of the world and skillfully guides them toward unity of equals. The most important thing is to keep this unity.

Every person attains success only on the condition that he is united with others and attains group results with them. The success of each person is determined by how much he helps others. We evaluate each person not by himself, but only by the achievements attained in the group and through the group.

We don’t need “outstanding” or smart students, and we don’t ask, “Who knows?” looking for a “hero” who will prove himself more clever or knowledgeable than others. We do not want this. What we want is for the children to feel that the question and the answer are aimed at the group, that the most important thing is to be together, and even if the answer is incorrect, it is still correct because it brings about a common solution in which everyone takes part.

If there is a chance to do so, a younger group should work with educators who are two or three years older. Children learn from these kinds of instructors better than anyone, looking up at them like at “angels.” And this obligates the older kids, in turn, to study so they won’t slip up in front of the younger ones. As a result, we win twofold: 10 year-olds happily learn from 13 year-olds, rejoiced that the older kids give them time and attention. And the 13 year-olds study the material, spurred by the feeling of their importance, in order to educate the younger ones.

Children have to be taught how to judge one another, separately and together. If someone acted wrongly, a “court discussion” has to be arranged where we study the incident and its causes, examining questions such as, “Was this action correct or not? Would I have acted the same way in that person’s place?” Every person has to hold himself accountable for conducting intensive, inner psychological work.

It’s good to take children on trips where they get to know the world they live in. Let them visit all sorts of factories, an airport, bank, post office, planetarium, and so on. At every place they visit, they should hear explanations about how each establishment is constructed and how it works. This can even be a storeroom of a supermarket where goods are received, sorted, and stockpiled so they can later be arranged on the display shelves for the consumers.

In short, the children have to know how our life is built and what it is comprised of. At every place they visit, the person responsible or the supervisor should give them the appropriate clarifications, and when they return to school, together they should discuss what they saw and heard. Every one of them has to write a report about the place he visited, describing what it is, what it is intended for, how it serves people and humanity as a whole, what kind of people work there, what kind of preparation they must go through, and so on.

These trips enable children to learn about the big world, how it is built, and the interconnections permeating it. They see how complicated it is to organize various areas of life and this motivates them to prepare for becoming full-fledged citizens of the world.

The process of studying in class is filmed on camera. Obviously, children quickly forget the events of the day that has passed, but later they can come back to them and look at themselves from aside, in particular, noting: Were they able to unite this time? This is part of self-study.

Our primary concern is not so much to give them specific, professional knowledge, but to give them the right approach to life. A person has to know what kind of world he lives in and how human society has to function in order to maintain a harmonious interconnection among all its parts.

We teach our children the inner psychology of the connection between them. This develops them internally a great deal, enabling them to learn new material. Recently, as was requested by the Ministry of Education, they participated in a symposium that was attended by hundreds of pedagogues and educators from all over the country. Teenagers dispersed among different discussion tables and communicated with the experts on such a high level that the experts were astounded.

Besides, this year several of our children have been accepted to university. In short, we see that it’s worthwhile to invest efforts and resources into upbringing. An example of the proper upbringing works better than any other example because it shows all of the advantages of the global, integral mode of study in a group that is permeated by unity, love, and correct relationships. This enables one to see with one’s own eyes how this approach opens up a person’s ability to perceive and forms him differently.

We have already published several books on upbringing. I hope that by the end of the year we will complete working on our curriculum and the set of study materials, which will include CDs and DVDs.

It’s advisable to study the topic of upbringing on our website. Maybe professionals in this field should even come to visit us to exchange experience. We will be happy to show you the method and bring you up to date.
From the Miami lecture 9/14/11

Building A Bridge Above Hatred

Question: Is there a difference between personal internal work andwork in the group?

Answer: In spirituality, there is no separate personal and group work—it is all a single work. If I exist only under one authority, under the complete rule of my egoism, nothing can be done. Such a reality is called “this world,” and in such a state, I have no chance in changing my ego.

To change my state means to change “a place.” That is, I have to build a new place, new spiritual feelings and mind. And that is possible only by means of connection.

My personal work is to exert effort to connect with others. And for that reason, I select people who can help me—they are called “the group.” Thus, both my personal and group work take place, but essentially, this is one general work. It’s because I can’t be without them, and they can’t exist without me: This is the way we are arranged from the beginning.

There is no other work besides connecting and feeling new spiritual phenomena inside of that connection. To the extent that I want to attach their internal desire to me, I correct my desire. In fact, my spiritual vessel exists beyond my “I,” in all the others.

I have to connect what seems separate and remote from me in my consciousness, obscured by a wall of my egoism, envy, hatred, and ambition, meaning my desire to dominate the others, to disregard everyone, to rule and to use.

Thus my ego purposefully shows me different forms of my remoteness and neglect of a fellow human being so that I build the bridge of love towards him. And the further I advance, the stronger I will feel that I despise others, repel them, and want to use them for my own good.

I do that with pleasure or see that it is simply necessary, and I will suffer if I don’t use the other. We are being put through such states and placed before the need of using the other and neglecting him or her to save us from problems. Meanwhile, I have to realize that all of that is just an exercise or a joke that I have to rise above in order to overcome it and to connect to others, namely above it.

The egoistic force brings me to a state of total despair: “Look, if you don’t cause damage to others, you won’t be able to exist!” All our work is in rising above it. That’s why this principle is expressed in such general words: “Love the other as thyself”—above envy and hatred, above the desire to use others.
[54212]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/2011, Shamati #121

Is Man The Master Of The World?

I see the current crisis not as a punishment to us, but as a unique opportunity to reach an eternal and perfect existence, a totally different frame of reference. We have made many discoveries in this world in the evolution from ape to human, but now, for the first time, the upper management is being revealed to us. We are beginning to hear that indeed, there is some force beyond us.

We understood that the forces of nature existed: the force of hurricanes or the force of gravity, but all these forces were less than us. They were the forces of blind nature: still, vegetative, and animate.

However, I, a human being, was above them. Who else could compete with me? Let an animal attack me. I can kill, defeat, or tame and domesticate it to serve me. I was the strongest among them.

Of course, there were some phenomena before which we were powerless. Suddenly, a volcano would erupt or some other natural disaster would occur, but we understood that they were the laws of a blind nature that had no mind. We could predict those catastrophes by various signs or calculate them using formulas. However, suddenly, for the first time in history, a new power is revealed between us, the human beings.

Try to feel the unusual things that we are talking about. This creates a situation as if we were gathered in one room for some meeting: There are many people, and an intimate atmosphere prevails between us because we have known each other for a long time. Let’s suppose that it is someone’s birthday, and everyone is mingling with a glass in his hand. Everyone knows what is happening.

Then, all of a sudden, a new attitude, a new power, breaks through, and no one can get along with one another. That is how our world appears now. People are beginning to feel that this new power is coming from outside, and they do not understand what to do with it.

Everything is changing at the level of man himself. The fact that some hurricane occurs is still okay. This is the still nature, or the vegetative, or the animate, but it is less than human. These things are stronger than me, but below me because they are devoid of sense and reason.

Unexpectedly, however, changes are taking place that seem to have sense and reason. I still cannot clearly distinguish the intellect there, but I already understand that these changes are at my own level. A new power is being revealed where I, using my sense and reason, have built the systems of connection between us, the people. I do not know about it, but I see that I cannot manage there myself. I cannot achieve what I wanted.

This is revealed to me slowly and from a distance, but I already see that I am not the master in this world. I do not attribute this to some force outside of me that has sense and reason, but I see that this obstruction is at my height. Therefore, today, we do not know what to do.
[54346]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/2011, Writings of Rabash

Loving The Other? It’s Easy!

Question: Where do the upper world and this world come in contact with each other?

Answer: Our world and the upper world meet in the desires of other people, which I can connect to my desires so they become like my own. That’s why there is the condition of “Love thy neighbor asthyself.”

My primordial desire is just a point. I can’t receive anything into it; it has no volume. If I can connect the desire of the other to myself and accept it as my own, I act in a very interesting way: I ask to be given the Light to fill it with. The Light comes, passes through me, and I fill that desire. If I connect myself to an even bigger desire the same way, and more and more desires, I reach the world of Infinity.

The world of Infinity is all the points in all the hearts. Then all the Light of Infinity passes through me, and I feel this Light in all the others, in seemingly foreign desires that because I connected them to myself became mine.

This clarifies the meaning of the maxim, “Love thy neighbor as thyself”: “You” (an egoist) “love thy neighbor” (all the others so that they become close to you) “as thyself” (connect their desires to yourself).

Then, you’ll pass all the upper Light through yourself. You’ll receive it into the desires you have connected to yourself—they are yours. Thereby we reach eternity, perfection, the world of Infinity. This is what our work is all about.
[54220]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 9/4/2011

What Will The Transition Be Like?

Question: We are at the threshold of a new state. Will the transition to it happen smoothly or will be accompanied by shocks?

Answer: This is something I cannot foresee because it depends on our free choice. Things can develop in either direction. If we advance correctly, then we will move toward the positive by being attracted to goodness. Otherwise, nature will push us from behind with disasters, which may include a world war.

Let us hope that we will choose the good path. And for that to happen, we have to do “our homework” the best we can. Besides the study, we also have to give what we received by working on dissemination and explaining what is happening to people. We have to create content and place it everywhere, including internet and mass media.

Every person studying the science of Kabbalah has to think about how to pass it on. We have to understand how horrible it would be to have this opportunity but not to realize it.
[54543]
From the New York lecture #1, 9/11/11

An Obscure Cloud Over The World

Today, we feel that the world is changing—but why? It’s because the Creator is getting revealed. He is getting closer, and we feel changes in our world. These changes are turned against our egoistic desire, and that is why we perceive them as something obscure. For the first time in our lives, it seems to us that we can’t fit into this world, into this life. We can’t understand what’s going on.

Usually, we performed this job ourselves; we made changes, instead of life forcing them upon us. We simply saw that it would be better that way. But today everything is on the contrary. Life is changing, the world is changing, and we are falling into confusion, as if losing control over what is happening and ceasing to understand it. All of a sudden, we find ourselves in a new world full of unpleasant surprises—and more and more with each day.

We feel absolutely helpless, like people who went astray or like scared and confused children who don’t know or understand anything. And all of that is because the quality of bestowal and love towards the other is getting closer to us and beginning to gradually cover us like a cloud.

So far, this cloud is light and translucent, but it descends onto us from Above, and we start losing our regular senses in it: vision, awareness. Nothing works in this fog anymore. Little by little, here and there, we still use what is left from the past. But there are many actions we can’t perform because this cloud hides the cause and effect from us, and doesn’t let us understand the correct course of action.

In fact, this means the Creator is approaching us. And until we begin to change accordingly, we won’t be able to see what to do with our lives through this cloud, through this new quality of bestowal and love, connection, unity, globality and integrality.

Certainly, we can try adjusting ourselves to this cloud. We won’t be able to drive it away, only get adjusted to it somehow. And then, the more it descends onto us, the more we become alike.

If not, it will happen the other way around. It will shroud us with such a fog that it will force us to become like it because we’ll feel increasingly weaker and unable to understand, feel, react, and deal with our lives.

We can wait until the situation becomes absolutely frightening, desperate, and uncertain and sufferings will finally push us toward action. They will be greater than the efforts required of us, and then we will run searching how to save ourselves from these sufferings, lessen or sweeten them. Or we can start looking for energy and force, cause, and motivation, which let us advance against our nature and change it in order to conform to this cloud, in advance.

Then we will understand what is going on here. Our new qualities will help us understand the nature of this cloud, according to the law of equivalence of form, and will be able to get settled in it. It won’t appear as a fog anymore; on the contrary, it will become a revelation of a new governance that is much better, stronger, and more desirable then the previous one.

After all, we were governed by our ego before, while now it is the upper force ruling. To the extent we understand it, we enter the same area of revelation and begin to exist in it, to understand and sense it.
[53809]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/2011, Rabash’s Letter

An Application For An Internal Use

Throughout our entire history of development, besides the period from the Exodus from Egypt until the destruction of the Temple, when Israel existed as a spiritual nation, all the previous two thousand years, Kabbalists used to establish small groups among themselves and that was enough.

But now, we have to build the new system of mutual bestowal in an absolutely tangible way, like all connections and systems operating in this world. Namely, we should build it not just in internal relationships between us, like the groups of Kabbalists who reveal the quality of bestowal between themselves; rather, today the quality of bestowal has to get realized in the matter of this world!

That should be a full and tangible application of this spiritual quality in our life, imprinted in all the nations, industry, commerce, man’s relationship with the world and society, in all everyday systems. It has to be revealed at every stage, in every element and part of corporeal relationships, in our entire daily life related to food, sex, family, honor, power, and knowledge. In other words, everything that exists in this world has to exist with the intention to bestow.

First of all, we need a new upbringing, and then we can begin with corrections. It’s because if we begin correcting the society before we correct ourselves, we’ll spoil it even further. The world will become even worse to show us our faultiness!

If today you don’t understand that you are corrupted inside and intend to change something outside, all the changes you will implement will be purposefully turned inside out for you to be forced to come back and first of all, correct yourself. And based on that internal correction, you will be able to come out with the external changes—from inside to outside. This is the only way to correct reality.
[53822]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/2011, “The Nation”