The Screen Is A Calculation For The Work With The Desire

Question: What is the screen composed of and how it is able to keep the Light from neutralizing the desire?

Answer: The screen is not the desire, but the force of resistance. The screen is felt as a calculation for the work on the desire.

How can I rise above the desire if I am in it? I get special force from the outside (from the environment or from the Light, that is, from some external factor), which allows me to get detached from my desire.

And then I don’t sink within my desire and neither do I identify with it. I am not under its control, when I think only of how to fulfill it, similar to a slave who receives orders from his master and runs out to search for how to attain what his master has demanded. I receive a different kind of force from Above, a different calculation, which happens either by way of great suffering or through intellectual enlightenment.

Before this, I only worried about my desire and wanted to fulfill it, that is, I was a big egoist. This big egoist doesn’t exist any more within its small desire. He is detached from it and from the side examines how it is possible to fulfill it more and more.

But by separating from from egoism for the sake of greater fulfillment, I begin to perform a calculation outside of my ego. A kind of split is created between my ego and myself in making decisions: The mind and my desire are as if split. And then I begin to understand that the desire always enslaves the mind and turns me into its slave.

Many people in the world experience this, for example alcoholics or drug addicts. If something causes obvious damage, a person understands that he has become a slave of his desire, of the vicious habit.

But if I look at my desire from the side (and of course a big and developed ego is required here: both the mind and desire), I begin to be sorry that I constantly obey it. I would like some relief from it, and here the development of man begins.

I begin to reflect if it is at all possible to somehow change my desires, to limit some of them and to increase the others? This is possible via the environment. If the shattering had not occurred and the environment had not emerged, we wouldn’t have any chance to exit our desires. But since I am connected to the environment that awakens me and provides me different values, as a result of this, I gradually change.

I compare them with my values and see that I am interested only in good food, and if the environment talks about music, theatre, and opera, I start feeling ashamed and begin to make calculations that distance me from my desire. At least I begin to criticize it, and thus a problem is created: I am not satisfied with myself any longer, and I am compelled to change to fit the environment.

Thus the influence of the environment brings us to such calculation when we are prepared to completely change—only so that others will respect us. But for now I act purely egoistically, without any screen. For the meantime, it is the egoistic screen. I want to be thin and pretty, thus I limit my food intake. Although this is also not easy, people do it anyway. Everything depends on what is more important to me and what gives me the greatest pleasure: how I look externally or food.

Everything depends on my calculation, when with the help of the environment I can increase the importance of one thing over another. Thus whoever is interested in losing weight or in being rehabilitated from a harmful habit must be included into a suitable society that values life without that habit.

But if you want to acquire the anti-egoistic screen, it is something else. For that you need an environment that makes you feel the importance of bestowal. It should hurt you that you are not able to bestow. You will feel that you are belittled because of it, that you aren’t worth anything and are wasting your life, and that in general, there is no reason to live if you don’t attain the attribute of bestowal.

The influence of the environment needs to be very strong, up to the point where you feel that you would rather die than live like this. And then you will begin to demand, to request, to pray, to perform all kinds of calculations and actions in order to acquire the screen. And when you see that there is no way to attain it, you will begin to ask for the Light that Reforms. This is what will bring you to the recognition of evil.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, TES

The Integral Upbringing: Virtual Or Physical?

Question: What is the best way to teach people: virtually or in actual physical courses?

Answer: I think that education can be virtual, but it must include exams. This will oblige every member of society to learn.

Just like people used to go to work in order to earn a salary, now a person will have to spend a certain amount of time in our educational system. And he cannot think lightly of it. He must actually go over each lesson, answer questions, and send his comments, taking an active part in this process. At the end of the course, he will have to take a face-to-face exam so that he can show what he has learnt.

Every student should be supervised because the success of the integral society depends on each of us. Here we see another interesting trait of this system: Because it is integral, each member has the exact same weight as the others.

After virtual studying and actual exams, people should form groups in which they will have to do some practical work. It should be done in neighborhoods, schools, in the daytime or in the evening, in different community centers, on TV shows, virtually, and so on.

Musical compositions, plays, and literature should be dedicated to this idea and present it from different perspectives.

Question: Who this program is intended for?

Answer: It is meant for the most ordinary people. It’s not for the intellectuals who find it hard to part with their beliefs, even thought they don’t understand this social order at all.

As far as I know, it is the most ordinary audience, people with a college education at most, but not more than that. It’s for ordinary people, the middle class. We are not that interested in others because the middle class is the basis of any society. Currently, specifically these people fall victims to all that’s taking place.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

Accelerating Our Exertion

Question: If we can advance in spirituality only by constant acceleration, how can we achieve that?

Answer: We have to “accelerate” our exertion and constantly increase it. Every next level includes the entire previous level in its lowest Sefira, Malchut. Thus the effort multiplies constantly.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

He Is Everywhere. So Where Am I?

Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Thus, we are at the hands of these four factors, as clay in the hands of a potter.

We are surrounded by the influence from Above from all sides. The Creator rules over us in a very harsh and absolute manner as He controls all the channels, both internal and external, in our desires, thoughts, habits, and nature. We have nothing that is ours, and even the words I am saying now are arranged by Him.

So what is our free will? After all, we cannot attribute freedom to any object, action, thought, or the smallest particle of the desire to receive. The Creator created it, He influences it absolutely, so what can be free in it?

People have come up with theories about two authorities and polytheism, about which Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Peace.” It is hard to agree that there is only one authority that “covers” everything. If the Creator is unified, if there is none else besides Him, if everything depends on Him, then I am under His absolute control, and it is as if I don’t exist, but rather dissolve in Him. So it is preferable to have two authorities: a good one and a bad one. This is understandable; in between them there is room for me, and I can affect things.

Still, at some point I realize that behind everything that affects me there is one Source. It isn’t an image that we can picture, but a mind, a feeling, something unified. I only have to discover the reason why it affects me, what it wants from me? What I should become according to its influence?

By knowing what He wants from me, I will know Him. What for? Is it just to make an acquaintance or in order to fulfill His desire?

What was His intent in creating me? What does He want by managing me this way? If He only wants me to obey Him, then it’s better not to know anything, but to simply act according to the instructions I have received. But if He really wants me to attain, to reveal Him, then I have to do everything to attain this goal and not to act automatically.

So there is a lot of work a person has to do regarding the initial cause of everything. This is our only work: to constantly sharpen and “polish” our attitude to Him. Who is He? What does He want from me? Why did He make me react this way? I constantly climb the levels of my attitude and clarify what He wants to give me by putting demands to me. What He wants is that thanks to bestowal upon Him, I will understand Him.

I continue this chain and constantly raise the level of His demands to me. Thus I have to justify the evil just like the good since they both come from one source. I have to understand why He splits His bestowal into two—thanks to this I will be able to check myself, to adjust my course. For Him this duality doesn’t exist, but my reality is divided into bestowal and reception.

Eventually, we must constantly reveal the concept of Unified, and not more than that. If I paid attention to that, I would see that there is nothing else in my life. Even in the corporeal world everything comes down to this clarification that discovers unity and reveals the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

The Point That Connects Me With The External World

When I use everything that exists outside of me for my own sake, it is egoistic usage. But when there is a reality outside of me, which aspires to the same goal as me, then the same intentions that exist within me also awaken in my soul, in all the desires that are external to me. And this is why I begin to work with these external desires referred to as friends.

From this we can understand that the group is my soul, the place where I reveal the Creator, my inner fulfillment, the spiritual life. From the entire external reality the Light organizes certain forces for me called the group, which are closest to my point in the heart that exists inside my body, inside my ego. And then I can establish a connection between my point in the heart, confined inside the body, and my soul that exists outside of me.

This is how I begin to acquire these external desires. This is why it is written: “Buy yourself a friend.” I buy my external desires by rejecting my ego, the desires to enjoy, making gifts, and doing different actions in the group.

This can help us understand the meaning of internal work, when I make an effort against my egoistic desire, inside my point in the heart, so I would connect with my external desires and transfer myself there as much as possible. And I do this until I entirely begin to only be fulfilled inside these external desires, instead of fulfilling my inner, natural, egoistic, desires.

The worlds, including the world of Infinity, the entire universe become revealed to me inside these external desires. But my ego will resist and serve by “help made against” me to show me the desires that are still left outside of me, and it will do it to the very end, until I acquire all the external desires. I will not be able to reveal whatever is around me without my ego awakening inside of me.

There is a universe, and I, my ego, and my point in the heart exist inside it. My closest circle is my group, my friends. And then the rest of the world follows: humanity, the animate, vegetative, and still nature. Or we can treat it as worlds with which I work:Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon.

This makes it clear why I need this entire world, the so-called 99% who personally are unable to help me, and this is why I must simply give to them one-sidedly. The only ones who can help me are the group, given to me by the Creator so that I manage to come out of myself, my boundaries. The main thing is to get out of myself—it is the most difficult thing to do.

This is why it is arranged to have one area in the entire large soul, which would be closest to me, and it is called the group. It helps me come out of myself and start acquiring my soul.

And when I come out of myself, I advance even further, together with the group beyond its boundaries, connecting the entire universe to me and attaining all of nature as one whole. I attain the integrity of nature, its full connection, and thus reveal the upper worlds.

I reveal an even greater Light by attaining a connection with the spiritual forces on lower degrees: “humanity,” “animals,” “plants,” and the “inanimate” where a larger desire to enjoy exists.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

Commonality And Self-Expression

Question: Could you give an example of a relationship between people that would be considered integral?

Answer: An integral relationship is when a person receives and bestows in a balanced manner. If the relationship between people works in this way, that means they are integrally connected.

I don’t want to keep repeating myself or sound like a socialist or a communist because that’s the last thing I am, but an integral society is one where everyone receives according to his necessities and bestows to society according to its needs. That constitutes an integral, global interconnection.

Under these circumstances a person enjoys and is fulfilled by his sensations, by what he discovers in this integral connection. It turns out that the more he bestows to others and the more he connects to an integral society, the more he is fulfilled by it. He begins to discover this system, enters it, and belongs to it.

He becomes an inseparable part of this system, like an electronic element, a resistor or a condenser, installed in the circuit, whereby the system begins to work with him in general harmony, and he feels it pass through him. The person begins to understand that he profits from being fully plugged into this system. And he doesn’t lose his individuality for he contributes himself, his qualities. If you’re a condenser, that’s what your role is, the same with a resistor, and so on. Essentially, you remain who you are.

Nature deliberately created us a certain way, precisely to allow everyone to be integrally connected to the general system via their maximum actualization in it. Your personal, individual, and unique participation does not contradict the integrality of the whole system; on the contrary, it allows you absolute self-expression.
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Talk on Integral Education 12/11/11

The First Condition For Becoming A Human

The first condition based upon which I can become a human is to rise above my desire and begin to observe it from an external point. This way I see this desire from the side, I verify, examine, and clarify it by means of a special analysis from the side of the upper one, the Creator. After all, I always have to attain the advantage of the Light from the darkness, meaning on the contrast of my desire relative to another desire.

It’s for the purpose of giving me this other desire for comparison that this artificial structure exists, called the group, the friends. Relative to them I can verify my desire, and at some point in the future I will be able to do this relative to the Creator Himself.

However, at first I need to rise above my own desire and begin to clarify it, observing from the side, from my point in the heart, which is called faith above reason. This is how I receive the objective, unbiased point inside of my desire—at first one point, but gradually I will be able to make a full restriction.

This does not mean that I am restricting my desires, but rather that I feel separated from them, as if they are losing power over me. This is not a suppression of one desire by another, more beneficial one, but the acquisition of an independent point that really is on the side of the Creator, or at least on the side of the group. If I relate myself to the group, I can see myself from the side and control my desire from above.

The more I get separated from my desire and relate to it as a researcher, the more of a human I become. This is because the desire is on an animate level, and the development of the relationship is higher than this desire, which requires the human level. The whole difference between a human and an animal is in the realization, understanding, the feeling and the mind, which allow one to correctly control one’s desire.

Desire is the matter of creation, and control over it makes me similar to the Creator. This is because I take control out of His hands into mine, and I begin to rule over my desire in accordance to the Creator’s program, uniting with Him and fulfilling His desire.

So it turns out that my desire, consisting of the still, vegetative, and animate levels, thanks to my control takes on the human form. All of these levels are only needed for the sole purpose of supporting the human level, giving them form and existence inside of it, rising and descending together with it.

We need to clarify this with the help of the environment for at first we don’t have any contact with the Creator. And since we are talking about serious scientific research, and not about fantasies, we are given the work in a group through which we are working with the Creator and on our desire.

If I separate from my desire and relate myself to the group, then the group becomes the level of Bina for me, from which I connect with Keter and with Malchut, and thus I control the entire structure of the universe. That is why unity with the group and love towards thy friend are the only means for us to work effectively and consciously, a unique possibility to realize oneself and to reach the goal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/2011, Writings of Rabash