Feeling Each Other

Question: Suppose in the process of interaction with a person, I feel an unpleasant sensation from him. Could this be an invitation for me to make an effort to connect with him?

Answer: You have to connect with him. Put him in front of yourself and then as if instead of yourself. This is your internal work. Again, it depends on at what level it is performed. Sometimes, we must specifically oppose each other in order to dig deeper, to come into greater contact. Essentially, we need contradiction to feel each other better.

Contact does not mean blurring the image. On the contrary, this image should become clearer. I have to see in a person everything opposite to me and at the same time, his desire to be with me. When we put one on top of the other, we get a dipole: the opposite qualities with the positive qualities above them. This dipole structures gives perfection and sharpens the senses, perception, and adhesion.

This contradiction is opposite to the regular reactions of our world because we add a positive level here. This does not exist in our world.

In our world, we are willing to accept some agreements and concessions, but they are carried out at one level: the egoistic one. Here, we try our best to take ourselves and the other to the next level of coordination with each other, in no way removing or erasing our initial negative qualities. They continue to develop in us rapidly.

It turns out that the group where members have a good connection with each other is advancing, developing, and discovering inside it strikingly wild qualities and original instincts: hatred, envy, and jealousy, and it’s all for nothing, as they say. We understand that all this is for us to rise above and to use them correctly. Thus, nature helps us in our inner development.

Conversely, the group that grasps the materials poorly and puts little effort into connecting with each other does not discover resistance and new negative qualities in its efforts to unite. Thus, their dipoles are small.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” #13, 12/18/11

To The Fourth Floor For Love

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 116: One who is granted the commandment of love by repentance from love, through it he is rewarded with turning his sins to merits.

Overall, there are four degrees on our way. At the bottom there is the broken desire to receive, meaning the broken AHP. This is called “sins” or “transgressions.” On the next level there is the broken desire to bestow, meaning the broken Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE). This is called “mistakes.”

Above that there is the Machsom (barrier). Above it, there is the corrected desire to bestow, GE. This is the level of Bina, “an incomplete righteous” who performs 612 commandments, which is the state of “Hafetz Hesed (HH)” or Lishma. Finally we reach the level of “one commandment,” 613th commandment—love. This is already the corrected desire to receive.

After crossing the Machsom, the mistakes turn into commandments and the transgressions turn into mistakes. By rising to the level of love, the remaining mistakes turn into commandments in the corrected AHP, and the commandments rise from the third degree to GE.

Thus the “transgressions” are the desires to receive in order to bestow, which were broken and turned into the desires to receive in order to receive, the shattered, corruptAHP. While the broken GE are “mistakes.”

When we try to picture all that, the main thing is not to exit the framework of the tenSefirot. If we are going to be confused, then at least it should be within clear boundaries and not in the space of imagination.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/2012, “Introduction to TES”

What Are You Wasting Your Life On?

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot,”Item 115: That such a person, who is still short of one commandment, will regard himself as half unworthy and half worthy. Meaning, one should imagine that the time when he was granted repentance was in the middle of his years….

Thus, in the first half of his years he is unworthy, and in the second half of his years, he is worthy.

Question: If a person wants to complete the whole process in this lifetime, how should he make an effort in the work?

Answer: During the preparation period a person hates everyone. Then the transgressions become mistakes and he connects with everyone. But this isn’t a complete correction yet. He is still in a state of Hafetz Hesed. Eventually, on the next level a person connects until he is in adhesion.

So the whole process is aimed at unity, and a person can reach the greatest unity from the greatest separation.

Every change is called a “reincarnation.” A person can live for 80 years without even starting to change and not go through one reincarnation. A new car, a new apartment—these things have nothing to do with reincarnation. The beastly body lives and dies, and this has nothing to do with reincarnation either.

On the other hand, everyone can end the process in one lifetime. Whether a person will do it is another question. It depends on him—he needs to want to end it. There is nothing else in creation except for the desire. If a person’s individual desire is small, he should find ways to increase it; he should find assistance in the wisdom of Kabbalah and in the Light that’s in it. There are no other options.

Some people come to us once a week, some come only on holidays, some come everyday, others come here in the morning and in the evening, and yet others try to spend the whole day doing what’s important. There are people who spend the whole day here because it is convenient and it feels safe, they feel like an embryo in the womb. Others want to fight their ego. It all depends on a person’s intention and on how he uses the means at his disposal.

Question: What does it mean “the middle years”?

Answer: It is the symbolic age of 40, that is, the stage in which a person ends his correction in Bina. Bina is called a blocked “Mem” (ם), whose numerical value is 40. Only after this level is it possible to move to receiving in order to bestow.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/2012, “Introduction to TES”

The Book For The Lost In The Desert

People who are not engaged in spiritual work took a different Torah, which one can understand, carry out, demand rewards, even arrange exams, and count the memorized pages. And a person who aspires to spiritual development is always facing the unknown, impossible, contrary to his will and reason, and thus he needs faith, that is, the force of bestowal, which is higher than the force of reception.

This is called faith above reason. Thus, spiritual advancement happens, and it is said: “The opinion of the Torah is opposite to the opinion of the landlords.”

This is the path for everyone who has found the “Book.” But there are many friends who wander in the desert, suffering from their unhappy existence, and who would like to improve their conditions. They do not seek spiritual attainment and ascent to the next higher degree, but merely want to improve their lives on the degree where they are now. And they should be treated as the Rambam writes: “Women, slaves, children, and old people are taught gradually, until they gain wisdom.”

They will also advance, and some day, a spark, which is now hidden deep inside, will break through. And in the meantime, they should be taught to the extent of their desire, for the sake of the goals that they understand before they come closer.

They will think that they act to fulfill their egoism. But since we teach them, and the concealed Light that Reforms passes through us to them, wisdom will gradually come to them, and slowly secrets will be revealed to them. In this way, the whole humanity will advance towards the goal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/12, “The Last Generation”

Three Factors For A Properly Working Mechanism

Question: What is the true standard of measuring the love for friends? What is the correct definition of a friend?

Answer: A person’s true check of the degree of love for friends is his understanding that he will not be able to reach the most important goal in his life without our uniting into one whole, and while within this whole, we also reveal the Creator.

It turns out that I, my friends, and the Creator obtain equal importance for me. They become one (1) with relation to everything else which I consider zero (0). The closer I approach such a form, the greater is the degree of my love.

A friend is my closest part of the soul together with which I am building a system in which the unity will be revealed. This is a cogwheel existing next to me. I have to grasp it in order to spin together according to the desire of the Upper One.

It turns out that we already create a system. I need just one friend with whom we spin together when we annul our ego, we enter into the clutch with our cogs, but this grip is realized according to the desire of the upper force.

We annul ourselves and as a result we enter into connection. We do this precisely to annul ourselves before the prior request from Above and allow the Upper One to spin us. We make an agreement with one another that we connect for the sake of sensing the order of the Creator who begins to spin us. Here all three factors are necessary.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, Writings of Rabash

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

This rule, familiar to all, includes the corrections of all of man’s desires (heart) and thoughts (mind). And on the contrary, only by correcting all of his desires and thoughts does man attain the quality of love for people, for all of mankind, and nature.

Every person’s love for the neighbor is very weak and is therefore not expressed explicitly. Thus, if several people unite together into a group and every one of them suppresses his egoism in relation to others, then every one of them will receive the forces of all the others. In that case, all of the separate forces of the group members will be amplified into one great force and they will gain the ability to carry out nature’s law of “love your neighbor.” A discrepancy arises here: Must one correct all of one’s egoistic qualities to attain love for the neighbor, or does one only need love for his friends in the group to attain it?

Usually people unite in a group to improve their situation in some respect, and every person makes a calculation as to how much he bestows to others and how much he receives since this kind of group is founded on egoism. If a member of such a group feels that he can receive more outside of the group than inside of it, he regrets being in the group. This kind of society distances a person from rising to the “human” level.

Indeed, reaching love is possible only by correcting all of one’s egoistic desires and thoughts. But by uniting each person’s small desires through love, in that union, together they create a new, common, great force, which every group member can use to attain love of friends and then to attain love for humanity and Nature.

But all of this can only happen on the condition that every person suppresses his egoism in relation to another. If a person is separated from the friend by his egoism, he cannot receive the force of love for the neighbor from him. Thus, one can receive the force of love from the friends only to the degree of one’s self-annulment before them.

This is similar to the inscription of numbers: If you first write a 1 and then a 0, you will get 10, meaning 10 times more. And if you write two zeros after a one, you will get 100, meaning 100 times more. This means that if one’s friend is a one and he is a zero, a person receives 10 times more from the friend. And if he says that he is two zeros in relation to his friend, he will receive 100 times more from him.

And vice versa, if he is a one and his friend is a zero, this equals 0.1, so he is 10 times less than his friend. And if he can say that he is a one and he has two friends who are two zeros in relation to him, then he is equal to 0.01 compared to them. Thus, the more zeros he places on the value of his friends, the smaller he is himself.

Yet even if you already have the forces to love the neighbor and you can really express that love, and you already feel that self-benefit only harms you, nevertheless, don’t believe yourself and be afraid that you might stop in the middle of the path and fall into egoism. You have to be afraid of receiving such egoistic pleasures that you won’t be able to resist them and will enjoy them instead of love for the neighbor. Precisely the fear of falling into egoism gives a person the forces to observe the law of nature, the law of bestowal and love.
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(Based on Rabash’s article “According to What Is Explained about Love Thy Friend as Thyself”)

The Movement Towards Integration

Question: What are the main characteristics of the fourth integral level of human development, the level of Adam?

Answer: This level has one characteristic—the movement towards generalization, towards a common humanity, towards mutual merging, the integration of everything it does on all levels: culture, science, all kinds of industrial interactions, financial and economic ties, and so on.

With the help of the integral education and upbringing, we need to reach such a state where we’ll be able to eliminate all borders and make a person absolutely free, when he understands and realizes that he needs to work only to support his normal existence and give everything else to the integral ascent because he feels absolute comfort and harmony in it. It becomes the most important thing for him and defines the future society.

However, now we shouldn’t think and talk about such society but about the transformation towards it because if we do not wish to voluntarily rise above egoism, this passing may happen by the means of great suffering. Meaning that conflicting opposing forces could arise, which may lead to a world war. Yet, it may be possible to do this by means of an explanatory work, which is what we are trying to do.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11

When Does Tranquility Come?

Question: Were the previous transitions of human development, for example, from the vegetative to the animate level, also accompanied by crises and suffering?

Answer: The previous transitions were smoother, more stretched out. The first, the still period, was the longest because the amount of still nature is much greater than the vegetative.

There is a kind of projection of one level of nature to the next, but it retains its proportions. That is why the still level of human development lasted tens of thousands of years, the vegetative one lasted thousands of years, and the animate one lasted hundreds of years, perhaps five centuries or even less. Our period should be over in just a few decades.

Nature directs all its parts from the Big Bang that started everything to complete rest, to full correspondence with each other. This tranquility will take place when man will reach his highest level and close the entire integral picture.

We are not talking about stars, galaxies, and so on. That does not matter. What matters is that at the highest level, man will be completely enclosed within it, including everything within himself. This is the requirement of nature. Its most important law is the law of balance of all of its parts. Any action tends toward equilibrium, to spending the least amount of energy, the minimal entropy, minimal disorder.

Here we encounter man who causes the greatest disorder. He is the only element of nature that has free will. Namely due to the freedom of will he must understand that he needs it only in order to achieve balance, harmony with nature.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11

Love Of Friends (3)

“Love your neighbor as yourself” is the main law of the integral nature in human society. By observing it, we observe all laws of nature, or stated differently, all laws of nature are included in this law. Does that mean there is nothing else for us to do but this?

Nature’s goal is to bring all of its parts to total harmony and balance. This allows a person to achieve the most comfortable state. All of the occurrences that we must go through are carried out only in order for us to consciously attain this state.

We have to research and follow nature’s goal and the path to attaining it. This is a guarantee of a successful life for us. By constantly supporting this principle scientifically, we will gain confidence in the path and in the fact that we have support from the laws of nature. This awareness of success in case we carry out nature’s law, or of misfortunes in case we do not must be sensed by us as awe and fear. This guarantees us a good path.

For that we must be aware of nature’s laws as being objective and compelling us to execute them consciously. Precisely the conscious execution of these laws is the distinctive characteristic of the “human” level of development as opposed to the “animate” level. After all, we went through all of our previous levels of development unconsciously, driven by the development of egoism within us. But today, nature is compelling us to develop independently, consciously, above egoism, by acquiring the quality of bestowal and love that is opposite to egoism.

So how can a person acquire this new quality, the desire to bestow, while at the same time understanding that the desire to receive for himself is very harmful to him? After all, this is contradictory to man’s nature as he cannot do anything that does not bring him personal profit.

There is just one solution: for several people who have an aspiration to come out of egoism’s power to get together into one group, where every member levels himself in relation to the others. Since every member of this group has an aspiration to attain the quality of bestowal and love, and all they lack is the force to realize it, by uniting into a group and suppressing their egoism in relation to the friends, they create a new substance. For example, if there are ten group members, this substance will have a force ten times greater than each person had individually.

However, this will only happen if those who gather in the group think about how to suppress their egoism rather than how to fulfill it. And due to sensing love of friends, every person will be able to sense an aspiration to carry out nature’s law because he thereby brings all of nature to balance and harmony.
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(Based on Rabash’s article “Love of Friends” (1984, #6))

Mutual Guarantee Is A Law Without Loopholes

If we are guarantors for one another, we are guarantors in everything, in happiness and sadness. This is because mutual guarantee is not just signing a document. We bind ourselves so that all the states come to us as to a single whole. This is the way a guarantee works in a bank: If a person doesn’t pay, then you pay, without any arguments.

And for us it is even more than that: You must love your friend more than yourself. After all, the commandment of loving thy neighbor demands that you put another in place of your precious self. That is mutual guarantee: a pledge that is impossible to withdraw from.

The upper Light knows how to arrange unity, but we must pave the way for ourselves. In the beginning we become partners and connect to each other. But all of that is still “we”: many and not one. And afterwards our desire will merge into one, and this complete whole will be above us, like a baby whom everyone worries about.

It is written: “The eye of the Creator is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His loving kindness” (Psalm 33). We constantly look at this baby and constantly support him with all our heart, hoping that he just grows up, that he is sound and healthy, that he is happy and feels good.

This is the way we look at our baby that is above us and belongs to all of us. We all, in our mind and soul, are there, in that one desire. We want to discover within him the spirit of life: the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/2012

Transition To The Level Of “Human”

Question: When we are talking about the four stages of development, how can we explain at which stage we are?

Answer: Today, all of humanity is in transition from the third to the fourth stage. Within each stage, there are sub-stages. For example, if we take the stages of human development without regard to the still, vegetative, and animate natures and the level of “human” because we have existed for dozens and even hundreds of thousands of years, then we can view development along the historical axis as the first, second, third and fourth stages.

Suppose that the 16th century, the late Middle Ages, marks the beginning of the technological revolution with development of cultures, sciences, and so forth. This was the third stage; that is, humanity became intensely concerned about its life, about itself as an animal. This is the bourgeois revolution and, ultimately, capitalism. Before that, humanity was in the vegetative stage. In the Middle Ages, antiquity, we find the signs of the vegetative type, the vegetative character of development. Before that, we were at the so-called still level when people used small forces with low labor efficiency, and only could take care of their food.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11

To Suffer In Order To Live

Question: How can a person give up corporeal pleasures if he doesn’t feel any pleasure in the desire to bestow yet?

Answer: We see that humanity is compelled to go through different states. Egoistic development leads people to despair and depression, drugs, alcohol, and suicide.

We live only by virtue of an instinctive, beastly fear of death, given to us to attain the goal. The fear of death is what keeps us and controls us, and if it weren’t for its control, we would have different calculations.

It is intentional that we are enslaved to death so that we’re compelled to go on living in every situation, even the worst. We are ready to give everything for life, although there’s no doubt that life itself isn’t worth it. But we act unconsciously, guided by an instinct instilled in us purposefully so that we advance towards the goal specifically by way of suffering and difficult calculations.

In doing so, we go though states in which there is no justification to go on living. However, the goal of creation forces us to do so. Therefore, the Creator inserted this beastly fear into the desire to receive, which obliges us to struggle for our lives. After all, the notion of “life” is much higher in our eyes than any suffering.

All this is so that we can survive and through the constant egoistic calculations reach the decision that we shouldn’t wait for death to redeem us from the suffering that we feel in our egoistic desire, but rather switch it for another desire,the desire to bestow. Then bestowal, connection with others, will not seem worse than death and unrealistic.

It’s because we’ve suffered so much in our ego that we can now make the account and agree that it’s possible to reach the desire to bestow. It’s the suffering that can help us do that. This is how we advance.

This means that there is a struggle between the different forces within a person. A person himself only has to sum up this struggle, and it is called the life wisdom he acquires at such price.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/2012, Shamati #35