Treating Integral Blindness

Although we need to study, change, and correct ourselves, it’s not all to be done yet because it’s as if nature is raising us up to a new level. It wants to take us out of the state of small, foolish, always squabbling animals, destroying our families and relationships, and having entered a dead end after all of the attempts to build a good life for ourselves. It’s because of the complete destruction and downfall of those attempts and the now growing world of disappointment and desperation that we can begin to rise towards the new world. It’s clear to anyone, even psychologically, that if I look at everything through the eyes of love and co-participation with the feeling that the whole world belongs to me, like a doting mother, if I feel that I am inside of every one, then this will give me a completely new view of the world.

From this, it’s clear that the world starts to look completely different to a person. He receives an integral vision, as if he’s looking at the world through new glasses. And now he sees that only one method, one force, a common system functions in the world. He understands that everyone is connected to each other and completes each other. While the whole of nature, the still, vegetative, and the animate world and people are suddenly being revealed to him as one unified system. He reveals all kinds of connections that exist in nature.

Before, with an egoistic view, it seemed to him that everything was separate from each other, and you didn’t have to worry if you spoiled something. Wishing to receive benefit in one place, one was not afraid to cause harm in another. The important thing for him was to make it good wherever he, himself, was.

Now however, through his new integral glasses, he sees that these places are connected to each other and it’s not possible to act at the expense of another place. It’s because of that type of action that we are now in a crisis, since we think that we must arrange a good life only around ourselves, and everything else will wait.

The absence of an integral vision does not let us put anything in order. We don’t know how to approach the financial systems, economics, technology, ecology, family, or the upbringing of children. And all of that is due to this integral blindness. However, by building new integral relationships within the family, we’ll be able to understand through them how to build up the world, since we’ll see how everything is connected to each other and we’ll receive the instruments for the perception of the new world.
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Talks about The New Life 7/18/12

The Creator In The Form Of A Friend

Question: How can we tune into the convention? What can we do to arrive there already hot, to start feeling everyone from the beginning?

Answer: To do this, you need to read all Rabash’s articles again about the work in the group, cancelling yourself before the others, viewing them as at the great ones who are in complete correction, and accepting each friend as a great Kabbalist.

We must try to see beyond all the words that you hear from a friend that seem silly to you, and to see that the Creator speaks to you through him. If you become connected in this way, you begin to see inside him what is really beyond him.

You just have to break this egoistic picture depicting to you that they understand and know nothing, who they are, etc. You need to see through them as a manifestation of the upper force. This is possible when you look at them as if you have blurred focus, and you really start to see commonality and the Creator.

Question: Do I prepare myself to see anyone in this way, or in general, everyone in the whole room?

Answer: In general, the hall, and anyone. You must look at all those who participate in the convention, who somehow suddenly got there, as at those who were brought there by the Creator.

Comment: But at the convention in Vilnius, you said that a person naturally sorts people: He likes some, does not like other, and most he doesn’t see at all.

Answer: This is just at the beginning, before the first inclusion, and then all these physical differences disappear. Then, he begins to see that all this is one system, a single image.
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From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

Connecting Links In The Infinite Space

I am a connecting link between all of my friends. And every one of us serves the same purpose. This is one n-dimensional system, in other words, this system is infinite.

I am included in every one of the billions of people with both, myGalgalta ve Eynaim and my AHP. And every one of them is also included in everyone else. This system is called Malchut of the World of Infinity. It is a very simple system. You simply begin to live in it when you enter it with your senses.

You become a conductor between everyone from above downward and from below upward. And the same happens to everyone: They connect with everyone else through you.

So what is left there for you? Only to neutralize yourself so you could continue to exist in this system this way.

Neutralizing yourself means to include yourself in everyone else above your egoism. Just make an enormous effort to include yourself. However, these efforts will be light and easy because an enormous amount of people get together, and in general, all of them have been sufficiently prepared during the seminars, and they understand how to create it and make it happen.

We have come to a point where we can realize it precisely and easy and reach such a critical mass, a power of desire and aspiration that “self ignition” will take place and the upper Light will manifest itself. We can do this!
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From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

To Tango With The Creator

The only thing we have to attain is that “there is none else besides Him.” This is attained only by the oppositeness, by what is called “help against.” The Creator sends us different interruptions, which seem to come from different forces, which are strange and opposite to the Creator and by chance. It seems that the interruptions are random: the force of impurity, Pharaoh, this whole world. We think that these foreign sources are the cause of all our problems.

But we have to overcome this feeling and constantly hold on to the thought that we have to reveal the Creator in everything that happens. If we see Him in every incident in this world, we begin to see the source in them, the Creator’s way and His attitude. Thus the Creator teaches us by showing us who He is in very secret cunning ways.

The Creator is playing with us when He conceals and reveals Himself alternately again and again. When He is concealed, we feel this concealment as unpleasant events in this life. But we have to discover that it’s merely a puppet show and that it’s all managed by a great director. Only the puppets seem real: the still, vegetative, and animate nature and the people living in this world. It seems that they are alive and that they can move by themselves, that they have free will and that they act independently. But if we look at this world as a lifeless wrapping and that only the upper force gives it life, we’ll get closer to the revelation of the Creator.

This work isn’t simple and is only possible by overcoming the difficulties. In order to do that we need the support of the friends, the mutual guarantee that doesn’t let a person forget about this work and which constantly keeps him in the thought of “there is none else besides Him.”

When a person feels weakness and despair, he has to understand that these feelings were also sent by the Creator, who is playing with him now. A person must immediately start a dialog with Him and begin the inner clarifications, which are more straightforward as we are facing the Creator directly. All these efforts eventually bring a person to the “gate of tears.” This means that although he is controlled by many other desires, somewhere in their center a desire to overcome himself and reach the love and the fear of the Creator appears for a brief moment. The Creator is revealed among all the foreign thoughts and situations that actually conceal Him.

A person has to do his best to see the Creator’s force in every imaginary form of life, which seems real and independent to him, and to understand why the Creator did this. In order to do so, he has to examine what is going on and to discover all this. After all, the Creator has only one intention: to be revealed to a person.

Thanks to these efforts, a person learns about the nature of the Creator’s attitude towards him, as he knows Him from His actions. The Creator hides through concealment and it’s as if He is playing with a person in order to teach him how he should also conceal and reveal himself. When the Creator is revealed, a person has to conceal himself so that he wouldn’t think that he has reached this revelation by himself. So he has to cover himself with a Masach (screen).

When the Creator is concealed a person has to yearn to discover Him. Thus in the mutual work as each takes a step forward and then a step backwards, it’s as if they are dancing a tango together, as they create concealment and revelation, once on the side of the Creator and once on the side of the created being; they build a stable Masach between them.

A person’s ego is hidden behind the Masach while he, the desires in his heart, rise above the ego, above the Masach and are revealed before the Creator. Then the Creator can also be revealed in the same way before a person.

The moment this happens, the gates of tears open up, after a person understands this game, accepts it, and is happy as he sees the great importance of the One with whom he is in contact. Then a person can accept all the events in life gladly, no matter how difficult they are and how confusing they may be. After all, it is thanks to them that he manages to build up a great account of all his efforts, penny by penny.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/3/12

In The Resonance of Feelings

Question: By disseminating the message of unity in the world, we bring the force of the Light. What is the best way to conduct the Light to a person? How can we feel him?

Answer: The Light flows from desire to desire. Words are not so effective because they are something external. By words, we touch a man with the rigid mechanism of standard perception: He was accustomed to different opinions; he can resist because of his pride; he does not agree with you because of his own feelings, regardless of the benefits that he could get.

No matter what we try to convey to people, it is desirable to clothe it in the least possible number of layers. And language is a very “dense” kind of clothing. After all, the words must pass through the person’s mind, constrained by too many factors.

The best way is to send our message is emotionally, sharing the feeling of the addressee, imbued with his enthusiasm, because the desire does not think, but feels. We must pull together our desire with his desire, resonate with his feelings, and then you will radiate on the person what you want. And your desire contains the Light that Reforms.

If you send a message through the rational system, it remains external and difficult to digest. This is a sure path to failure. People usually are not inspired by the fruits of reason. There are plenty of clever people in the world: Today, you convinced me of something, and tomorrow I will be able to convince you.

On the other hand, the emotional response is stored as “records” (Reshimo), and even after ten years a person can return to it. Even a random thought is enough, and he will remember the scene, the situation that he once experienced. Knowledge and thoughts become forgotten, but feelings always remain.

It is very important: No matter what audience we may address, even including scientists, we should carry the feeling that would produce a response. We turn to the desire, to human needs, and try to give an answer to what he lacks, to give a solution to his problems, or at least a hope for a solution.

This requires roundtable discussions, workshops, and collaborative activities that carry a nice feeling, as if we invite people to have a good time: “Let’s do it, and you will cheer up. You will see that not all is bad in life, that it has another side. ”

It is like a drug that Kabbalists call the “elixir of life.” It does not intoxicate, does not disconnect from reality, but helps one to overcome it, and this is its difference from real drugs. Due to positive emotions and inspiration, people start to appreciate unity and continue on the path.

The same applies to children, even the little ones. They should know that if they play together nicely, they will get a prize. Unity does not rouse their positive feelings yet, and that is why we give them candies or gifts, for which they should stick together. They will be ten-times more friendly to each other in anticipation of the prize, and then the habit becomes the second nature. After all, they have already learned to play many games together and already adopted a common form. By the way, adults follow the same path: They come with their families, have a good time, and smile at each other; these are their “candy” that help them get accustomed to act together. Meanwhile, news of unity “translates” in their hearts.

A good attitude heals many wounds. 90% of the ills in our lives can be cured just by a good attitude, not adding anything beyond this. Show your compassion to a person, and you will reduce his pain by half. Show that you care about him, and you will take half of the remaining pain. This is our psychology because together we are in a common system. That is why such an attitude will certainly cause a response. Give a gift to a person, and he will look at you differently. He has no choice in this.

That’s what we need to explain and demonstrate to people until they reach for good relations themselves, as young children are attracted to sweets. After all, our desire requires pleasure so let a person enjoy the pleasure of those actions that lead him to the goal. Even if he still does not know about it, but you know.

You want to lead the whole world to the Creator. You treat people with love and understanding. Sometimes you need firmness, but in general, you act gently, and it’s guaranteed to work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 

On The Way To Infinite Adhesion

Question: How can I better understand that the world depends on me, and how can the group feel that everything depends on it?

Answer: The easiest way is to remember that there is no world outside myself. It is only because of the shattering that I imagine that everything around me is not me. As Baal HaSulam says, there is only one soul in the world. In the real state of Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) we are all connected and there are no barriers between us. No one is isolated, we are in perfect mutual connection and everyone feels only the others and not himself. This is the real picture and we have to reach it independently since today we see it in its opposite form.

In the last, fourth phase of the Direct Light the created being feels that the Creator loves him and that He does everything for him in absolute love without any self-calculations. On the other hand, the created being feels the opposite feeling of the self that is accompanied by such great impatience and suffering that he is ready to do anything in order not to feel that.

After the restriction the created being discovers that he can attain the same thing and reach an equivalence of form with the Creator. Then he decides to find a place where he can be independent. He has detached himself from Malchut of Ein Sof, but has not become independent yet and has continued his search—how to break free of the Light and still acquire its power in order to change himself and become like it.

Then comes the descent from phase one to phase two until our current level. Today only the spark is evoked in us, some vague knowledge, and from this moment it is only by our exertion that we can attain the two forces: the desire to receive and desire to bestow so that they will dwell in us. Then we will be able to manage ourselves and bring ourselves to the initial adhesion by ourselves.

Before the Light, the Creator who created this state provided our full adhesion. Now on the way to Malchut of Ein Sof, I climb the levels of adhesion by my own efforts, by my self recognition, by my self feeling. I determine my state and thus attain infinite adhesion which I feel 620 times more strongly than before because I have done this work by myself; I understood by myself; I felt; I have acquired; I have earned it. This will be the final third state.

I follow this path by attaching to myself all the parts that seem like strangers, that are hateful, distant and opposite from me. I attach them to the absolute love among us and by that return from our world to the word of Ein Sof.

Today we don’t hate the external world, but we are indifferent to it. Later on, however, we will discover such sources of hatred that are called a “shell” against the Holiness, against bestowal. We will encounter things that we cannot even look at, that we will find hard to hear. Imagine that someone destroys something that is important and dear to you and now by rising above that feeling you have to love him and thank him. Is that possible?

Compared to those terrible states it is as if we are in a “kindergarten” today. We are not “playing” with the real discernments yet…

So before the correction, everything is revealed in its opposite form. Therefore the world, which today simply seems distant and detached from us is actually the parts of the general vessel, of the one soul.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Give Way To The Light!

Question: What is important at the convention: that a friend is in a permanent cancellation of himself before the general flow or in the constant internal scrutiny of his state, in search of new sensations?

Answer: No, he has nothing to scrutinize his state with! He does not have the inner Light! He has nothing. He draws the inner Light by being included in the others, and the Light reveals these states in him. Otherwise, he will think with his mind and come nowhere. He must give way to the Light that will show his next inner, higher states.
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From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

How Can We Build Love Above The Ego?

Question: What is love above the ego?

Answer: First by the efforts a person makes in the group, in the study, in using all the options, he should value the attribute of bestowal very highly. A person goes through many states of giving and bestowal that he isn’t aware of at all, as he feels himself as “dead.” He can be in opposing states, wanting only to receive, or feel disappointed about the way or the opposite, meaning to be in high spirits. But a person should rise above all these opposite polar states. There is the state itself and I rise above it. The state was sent from Above by the Creator who thus wants to check how we respond and rise above every state.

A person usually feels indifference and disrespect. But if he says that he doesn’t want to believe what he sees and starts doing something about regaining his inspiration, the sensitivity, the feeling of vitality in bestowal, his special attitude towards his correction, meaning above the indifference and the disrespect, then he will gradually draw upon himself the Light that Reforms.

I begin to value the attribute of bestowal, the advancement towards the Creator, towards His revelation, the states that are above this world. If I already value this and aspire to bestow, I have a vessel. I want to feel that I’m lost within the attribute of bestowal, that I value it more than anything. Why did this suddenly happen? This is how the upper Light bestowed upon me and now I want to have this attribute too.

The question is also why do I want it? I may feel that I’ll feel better with it, that it will free me of all troubles and worries. Is it bad to feel that I don’t belong to this world? Many people want to detach themselves from it.

So I should check the reason why I’m doing this. The upper Light stimulates me and inserts the appreciation of bestowal into me, but what kind of bestowal, perhaps egoistic bestowal? I check myself with the help of the group and the friends, to see whether I can, with the help of my apparent aspiration for the attribute of bestowal, attain it and feel it. Do I want to bestow in order to bestow upon others, or am I doing this in order to receive something: respect or appreciation? I check all this within the group.

Why do I do that? So that I’ll feel good? No! So that others will feel good? Yes! But do I know that it’s so and that inside I don’t actually hope to get something in return? I check it by asking whether I aspire to bring the Creator pleasure through the friends. Here my true distant goal has to be revealed. I suddenly discover that I want to direct all my actions of bestowal towards the Creator.

But here too I still have to clarify things, since to bestow upon the Creator is undoubtedly worthwhile. After all, He will certainly understand, discover and pay me for my loyalty, and if I reach this, my whole life is filled with different priorities. But no! I want to bestow so that the Creator knows nothing about it and only in order to be in the attribute of bestowal.

I examine my actions according to the extent that I can rise above my egoistic desires. If I don’t constantly examine myself as to how to raise bestowal above receiving, I’ll not be able to hold on to bestowal under any circumstances. I must constantly check what I have gained and what I have lost and whether I can ignore my losses. This means, whether I can receive a filling and be above this.

I have constant calculations in my desires to receive as to what extent I can remain in true bestowal. One is based on the other. After all, there is no way to assess whether or not you are doing this for yourself, in the vessels of bestowal, in the aspiration to bestow, but only if under all this there are desires to receive which I restrict to build upon them aMasach and the Returning Light, which means my actions of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

You’ll Get What You Ask For

Question: What can help me during the reading of The Zohar to see the point in the heart of my friends?
Answer: Ask! The Zohar is like electricity in the outlet on the wall: If you want, you can heat with it, if you want, to cool, plug anything into it. It is energy. The Zohar is the simple Light. You decide how to use it.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, The Zohar

There Has Not Been Such A Convention!

Question: How can we convince ourselves that we are waiting for not an ordinary convention, but really there will be something special at this convention?

Answer: First, we have come to the state where the world demands this. The world has long been in a “desperate state,” but all this is just masked, obscured. But no matter how you hide them, the problems have already come out from under this cover. And that is why, while they are still trying to hide something, it no longer helps.

So, on the one hand, we see that the world forces us. And this is the most important thing since Kabbalah was revealed because the world is beginning to come to integral interdependence. But no one, except Kabbalah, has the method of preserving society, peace, family, and oneself in this integral interaction.

That is why Kabbalah was waiting for this moment to be revealed and to become the method of constructing a new society. We have to demonstrate on ourselves how to do this and learn from lectures and workshops how to teach this so that it is very clear and simple.

Every person who comes to the congress, in principle, is a potential distributor who will be able to give lectures, organize workshops and roundtables, etc. At least, if a person is not able to learn everything, he will still be able to absorb something and then finish his studies in our courses. I very much look forward to it.

We have to go through all the states that a person must pass beginning from zero and finishing with full connection with each other.
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From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

The Age Of The Crucial Ascent

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” item 63: Thus, in our generation, although the essence of the souls is the worst, which is why they could not be selected for Kedusha thus far, they are the ones that complete the Partzuf of the world and the Partzuf of the souls with respect to the Kelim, and the work completed only through them…Hence, only after the completion of these lowly souls can the Highest Lights manifest, and not before.

The vessels that belong to the upper third of development (HBD) are very “transparent” and pure. The desires of the second third (HGT) are “thick,” but they still belong to the phases of “smallness” of Ibur and Yenika. The Light of Hochma cannot be revealed in them, and it is only a preparation for all the generations.

We begin to count from the First Man until the period of 6,000 years since there is a correlation between the spiritual roots and the corporeal branches. The large vessels couldn’t be revealed during the first 4,000 years. During the first third of the last 2,000 years, the process also started from the “shattering of the vessels” (the destruction of the Temple), and three-fourths of that period were in exile. It is only since the time of the Ari that the time of redemption began.

Today, we are living in the final phase of the last 2,000 years (NHY) when the vessels have acquired thickness and toughness and have become heavy and bulky under the weight of the growing ego. Of course, we don’t blame anyone for anything. It is simply our nature, and it is very hard and insensitive.

Compared to us, it was very easy to discover the Lights and attain adhesion in the previous vessels in the thickness of the root and the first levels (HBD and HGT). Then, too, of course, a person had to work hard, but, still as Rabash used to say, even in the 19th century there were Jewish people who were ready to devote their lives to revealing the Creator. To adhere to Him, they gladly gave up corporeal pleasures. That period ended with World War I since wars reveal the evil in order to oblige the world to connect more strongly.

Today, everything is different. Offer a person a million dollars or adhesion with the Creator, and he would take the money without any hesitation. In the 20th century, the world advanced so much that it is very hard for us to understand the world of our ancestors. It is hard to imagine previous situations since a very special period has begun, a very hard period of the development of our desire.

However, we also can divide this period, just like all the other periods, into HaVaYaH. Then, we can see that we are at a certain point in our development where many desires and forces are accumulated. What is more, this phase also is divided into several parts, and we begin to see the thickest desires.

Today, besides the Light of Neshama, the Lights of Haya and Yechida also have to be revealed, a phase which is called AHP de Aliyah. The previous generation helps us with the Lights of Nefesh and Ruach that they already have attained, while we, thanks to their support, approach the corrections we have to make at the level of the Light of Neshama, which is not mutually incorporated with the previous generations, but independently.

By working in the world of Beria, we constantly discover the Light of Neshama, while the Lights of Haya and Yechida will be revealed to us only during the ascents, by incorporation. They also are necessary, especially in the current phase. This is a very special addition that requires a totally different kind of work, of to receive in order to bestow.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Hunger Isn’t Our Method

Question: When we turn to the general public we first of all propose they unite in order to solve their daily troubles. Then the real meaning of the unity will be revealed, is this true?

Answer: Yes. From an egoistic intention (Lo Lishma—not for Her sake) we move on to an altruistic intention (Lishma—for Her sake). Baal HaSulam writes about it in the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot (items 138-139): “People turn to the Torah from the worst state.” We may ask, who let them? Who gave them permission to do so? The sources describe in legends how the angels asked the Creator: “How can You give Your Torah, Your study to such lowly creatures?” But Moses beat the angels by asking: “Do you feel envy? Is there an evil inclination in you?” This is the only way; we have to use the force of the Light in the situations that the Creator sends us on purpose when there is nothing in our soul.

So we have to present the method of correction to people and explain that we should connect and unite. The more softly and accessibly we convey this message, the faster they will accept it and will not deteriorate into real hunger and real critical states.

Today we are not dying of hunger, but we do feel the limitations and the growing pressure of the circumstances. If now, while the situation is not threatening yet, we manage to convince people, things will work out. If we don’t, things will get worse and deteriorate to a level in which we will be able to meet the masses and reach them. Then we will be able to present the right explanations to them and they will listen to us.

But we have to bring them the information about what is going on now, out of love and concern. Not even a fraction of the evil has been revealed and we already have to think about how to overcome the crisis. But today we “go out to the people” not in order to take part in demonstrations, but in order to explain.

What is more, in Israel we cooperate with other social movements in order to create a connecting network among the people. There are many organizations and circles that can cooperate with us in the process. Our participation is enough in order to start the support from Above.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Love Adorns Life And Also Spoils It

My wife is my mirror. After all, I never see my partner; rather, in him or her I see a reflection of my qualities. For instance, I don’t understand the beauty standard accepted in China. I look at a woman who has a reputation for being a true beauty and I wonder: I would never call her beautiful. To my taste, her face is too round, her eyes are too narrow, and her hair is too straight. It all seems unattractive to me.

But once I read an article by a Chinese journalist about the international beauty pageant “Miss Asia” and it said that the girl wouldn’t have won in China because her eyes were too big. I was simply stunned about how different our perceptions of beauty were—they were totally opposite. This is why we can’t understand each other.

It follows that I look at the girl in front of me and project upon her all my ideas about beauty. And if I don’t ascend above them, it will affect our entire relationship. I won’t perceive her as she is, with all of her true qualities, but will see in her the reflection of my properties, my taste.

When one looks at a person in an unbiased way, it’s impossible to determine at all whether he or she is beautiful or not. Ask any mother, and she will tell you that nobody looks better in the world than her child. As it is said, “love will cover all sins.”

And on the opposite, our ego, hatred will disfigure all beauty. The appearance of a person whom I hate also becomes unbearable. And although to be objective, I’m ready to admit that according to my criteria, he or she seemingly has a pretty face, I hate it for other reasons.

Only humans exhibit such attitude. Animals don’t look at the beauty; they value in each other power, the ability to procreate, to bear healthy offspring, and raise them till they become independent.

Man, however, is spoiled with the notion of beauty. In truth, this is not beauty, but the demonstration of my ego: special conditions I present to the opposite side, which exceed the necessary minimum required of the physical body.

If we looked at each other rationally, naturally, I would see me before me a healthy, strong woman whom I am ready to marry. After all, I see that she will keep house well. In the past, people used to choose a spouse based on this simple, egoistic principle. Or they took the social standing, wealth into account. People didn’t pay much attention to the beauty, but used to choose a spouse based on simple, pragmatic reasons: what is good for life.

More often, even parents used to choose and act as matchmakers for the couples, not the young people. This was customary in most cultures. Or they turned for advice to a clever, respected person. In our times we suddenly come to such distortion that it in particular obliges us to perform the correction.

Today we consider only whether we love each other or not. All movies tell only about such love. It wasn’t like that before. We don’t understand how people lived a hundred or two hundred years ago. Love or mutual attraction wasn’t in the field of view. Sexual attraction did play a role, but it’s not what today we mean by the concept of love. It has developed just very recently and spoiled our entire life…. Hence, if we use it correctly and “cover all sins with our love,” if we deal with our impulse to love or hate the other in this particular way, we will succeed.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/31/2012 

A Lecture For Oneself

Question: Why are we engaged in dissemination as if we want to correct the world if we need to correct only ourselves?

Answer: You see other people around you who seemingly have their own power and are strangers to you. But this is the way your splitperception is revealed to you, the difference between you and the corrected soul.

The corrected soul feels that there is no external world and it’s all in your heart. And as long as you can’t feel this way, it’s the sign of a fault within you. So, you need to take care of others and convince them. You need to approach them to the extent that they seem external to you.

You treat them like strangers whom you should attract to correction. And if you do it properly, then you train yourself internally. Supposedly by reaching out to people and correcting them, you really correct yourself inside, and due to that they are changing!

Do you think that you go out into the world and give lectures to others? In fact, you give the lecture to yourself. You think you are trying to change them? It’s you who persuades yourself to change!

You can’t approach yourself directly and make a correction in yourself. You have no power. By seeing flaws in others, the force of egoism helps you correct them. You have to correct yourself in such a deceptive form.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

My Evil Under A 620-Times Magnifying Microscope

All the events are revealed to a person because of his incomplete perception because of his uncorrected sensations. The world is depicted as incomplete according to a person’s perception and understanding. But we should understand that this imperfection is not in the external world, but in ourselves.

The current global crisis doesn’t develop around us but only in our perception. But the moment we correct ourselves, all the external problems will disappear. It is because the world doesn’t exist in itself, but only in our feelings; it is within us. As soon as we correct our attributes, all the disasters and the problems, the storms and the crises immediately disappear. None of this exists; the upper Light simply fills all of reality…

The difference between truth and lie is only within a person. First by clarifying all the blows that hit him, he should understand that there is a purpose and a reason for them, as it says: ” I am the first,” which means the reason, and “I am the last,” which means the purpose. These blows come so that a person could correct himself and realize that his perception of reality is false.

It operates like a “helpmate.” Since if this evil remained in a person, he would never reveal it. But since the evil is revealed on the outside, it is as if it is against him, and so a person can discern it. Our ego magnifies this evil many times by enabling us to see it in others in its most prominent form.

We look at our evil as if through a magnifying glass and see it 620 times larger. This helps us reveal it and it is called a “helpmate.”

I reveal this evil in others, but I understand that it is the opposite and that it is inside me, and thus I can correct myself. A person has to constantly check himself and whether he has the right perception: He must immediately turn all the evil that he sees on the outside, see it in himself, and correct it.

So when I identify with what is outside myself, I perceive this attribute as good for me. I accept it and am in it by correcting myself. Thanks to it, I can check myself with regards to the group, with regards to others, with regards to the Creator.

It turns out that the perception of the external reality helps me find the evil in me in my internal reflection, and to understand that it isn’t the world that is destroyed, but that it is me who is ruined, since this is how my evil is revealed. It is by correcting myself that I correct the whole world. This is called “judging myself and the whole world to a scale of merit.”

Let’s hope that we will be able to understand and to digest this, to perceive this picture and to convey this correct and healthy approach to the whole world, to all the people. Then, by the correction of man, we can heal all the problems. The first difficulty is to change my approach and instead of correcting the world, we should understand that we should correct ourselves.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the whole world we see around us is a reflection of our internal attributes, just like a mirror. But in order to keep it simple, we should explain that a person should correct himself first so that he can later correct the world. This is because a corrupt person builds a corrupt world and a corrected person can build a corrected world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The Kabbalistic Revolution And The Darkness Before Dawn

Question: Baal HaSulam says that if we don’t keep the balance between the forces of receiving and bestowal, nature punishes us. Why should people be punished if they don’t know anything about it?

Answer: It isn’t “punishment” in the usual sense, but rather the way a person is evoked to self-correction. On the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, the “punishment” is the correction itself. On the other hand, on the human level the punishment is the awakening, the push so that a person will hasten his correction in “I shall hasten it” and not in “it’s time.”

In the meantime we develop according to the first three levels—the still, vegetative, and animate—and our development is a natural, instinctive process, which we call “according to schedule,” “in its time,” according to the plan. Kabbalists knew in advance the approximate dates of the different phases, but starting from the 15th century, the wisdom of Kabbalah became part of this as it was meant to speed up the process. Since then, part of humanity continues to receive “ordinary” blows and problems that lead to scientific, technological progress, while another part began to receive special blows, that are intentional and by which people are evoked and turn to the wisdom of Kabbalah. This awakening started from the Baal Shem Tov who actually opened the gates to the internal work for the Jewish people and founded its principles for the future generations. He didn’t write anything, but he disseminated the method to an unprecedented extent. He was an exceptionally practical man, considering the conditions in his time.

It was the Baal Shem Tov who initiated the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah for the masses. He had power that was given to him from Above, of course, to insert the sparks into the devastated nation that had been through troubles such as poverty and pogroms in Eastern Europe. He organized people and built a general network among them. He began to reveal to them the structure of the spiritual reality: the five worlds, Sefirot, Partzufim… then The Book of Zohar became accessible to the masses, which again was an unprecedented event. It was possible for the Hasidim to keep it on their bookshelf since the wisdom of Kabbalah was not forbidden anymore.

The first students of the Baal Shem Tov were great Kabbalists. They founded Hasidic movements and wrote books that the people could accept. These books, which are written in a very emotional, beautiful language made people accustomed to the internal work.

It isn’t by chance that Baal HaSulam thinks very highly of the Baal Shem Tov; after all, he started a true Kabbalistic revolution and opened the door that used to be locked for all those who are interested in it. He himself is still a mystery; we can talk about his actions but not about him.

His students carried on his work, each according to his character, and eventually all the Hasidic movements made a great step towards the fulfillment of the wisdom of Kabbalah among the people. People began to respect the spiritual attainment, the self-annulment and the love of others. Concepts such as “Love thy friend as thyself,” and “Worship the Lord with joy” became part of life. It was a time of very intensive internal work.

Only two hundred years later there was a descent, when the Hasidic movement became a “ritual” and the internality became externality again.

If we come back to the question, we are concealing the facts from ourselves; we don’t want to hear about them, and the moment we forget about the spiritual work, we are immediately back in our corporeal work. Here the ego that controls us operates and it conceals even the slightest connection with the Creator from us; it conceals His actions, His existence. We don’t want to know anything about Him.

It isn’t by chance that this concealment is so great; it builds the space for a person to stabilize himself. On the other hand, he is reminded of what’s important and is evoked and brought to the group. This process will gradually spread all over the world, but first there is the period of darkness, which is the basis upon which a person should build himself in the future.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/02/12, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”

Relating To My Other Half

Question: How should I see my other half to realize the integral principle in our relationship?

Answer: Both mutually rise above our egoism in each other, until you find such a point of tangency where you are one common whole. This is called “Adam” from whom through the means of splitting, man and woman occurred. In general, the “biblical” Adam is an integral structure, a “unisex” system. There is no woman and no man in it. Subsequently, this system has broken apart into two parts in order to reveal the complete set of their opposite qualities in the most maximum form.

This maximum opposition is what is being revealed today, since we can no longer be together in any kind of relationships. This can be seen in the flourishing of various kinds of unusual, unnatural types of sex, from the impossibility of being able to exist together, and from the ease and corruptness of connections, and so on. This means that we have arrived at a state where we have to begin to restore the structure of Adam from its complete opposition.

This is a very good state, similar to how a child is given a completely disassembled building block set or a puzzle so that he can assemble it together. It’s from this assembly that we’ll attain ourselves, nature, the Creator, and it’ll be clearer to us who we are and where we exist. In the end, we’ll attain the internal part of the world, its concealed force, current, plan, and we’ll be able to reveal for ourselves a completely different level of the universe, eternity, and perfection. All of this is possible. This is evidenced by science today.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/8/12

You Cannot Avoid The Obstacles

Question: Why is it that even now, when the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed, that there is a danger that the externality will control the internality?

Answer: Everything is revealed on the background of the growing egoand this is also where the danger is; how will we end the correction: in order to receive or in order to bestow? Which path will we follow, the path of the Torah or the path of suffering? It is because the positive force grows opposite the negative one.

So there aren’t fewer problems with the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is because we are less able to hear anything and because there is an increasing hardening of the heart. It isn’t by chance that the last blows before the exodus from Egypt were so hard.

Question: But is it possible to distort the idea itself in our times?

Answer: A person wants to contradict things automatically and unless he feels that, on the one hand, he has no choice and, on the other hand, he can save himself by this method, he will not accept it. So he has to be approached very gently and the truth has to be wrapped in such wrappings that will not evoke any resistance in people.

It isn’t a matter of “inverted propaganda,” but human nature, the ego that is a “helpmate.” The Creator is there as the “Pharaoh” who doesn’t want to hear anything and causes different interruptions so that you will correct yourself that way, learn how to rise, and understand the wisdom of Kabbalah more deeply in order to overcome the obstacles more powerfully and discover the truth until you begin to teach others. It is all part of the process of correction. It cannot be a short and easy path.

No matter how many more enemies and adversaries there will be, we need to understand that it is a result of the system. How will the heart of Pharaoh be revealed? Only by tenacity and cruelty. It may seem that one or two blows are enough; why do we need all the plagues of Egypt all the way to the “death of the firstborn?” But Pharaoh doesn’t give in; even the escape is in the dark.

So we have to be gentle and explain again and again and help people face their ego. No matter what they may say about us, there is no other way. Just as we cannot choose the character of our children, we have to take care of them lovingly, no matter what. The child may go wild and not listen, he may be too naughty, but what can you do? After all, it is my child, he was born, and I have an internal connection with him that cannot be broken.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”