I Feel Fine, What Else Do I Need?

Question: Do we have to be humiliated before we reach connection?

Answer: We are low with regards to our ego, but not with regards to the goal and the Creator.

Question: But still, why do we develop by suffering?

Answer: How else? If we feel good, we won’t move forward. On the contrary, such feelings block our way. This is because “goodness” is pleasure and fulfillment, and if I am content, I don’t move. This is the natural reaction of my egoistic desire. On the other hand, when I feel bad and it hurts, I immediately look for a way out.

A person is a feeling element. Pleasure prevents him from any action; it prevents movement for an unlimited time. If a person feels good, he won’t move, if you “prick” him by sufferings or even by lack of fulfillment, he will immediately begin to look around searching for a new source of pleasure. If the dissatisfaction exceeds the threshold, a person begins to move.

On the development level of the still nature, by being motionless, he doesn’t fill himself and only develops new desires, until the sufferings grow and oblige him to move to the level of the animate. The plant knows how to open up to the sun and to absorb nutrients, to breathe, and it seems to be calm, but once again there is something missing and even more than before. This obliges him to move and to exhibit greater activity in order to enjoy.

This is how our desire to receive is created: It is enough to feel pleasure or pain and by balancing them it undoubtedly reaches the goal. Nothing else is required from it. This process depends on the size of the desire and on its uniqueness and its diversity. Suppose, I am a great egoist; the egoistic fulfillment overcomes me and conceals me under a load that weighs thousands of tons. I can’t do anything other than to enjoy. In order to come out of this situation, I need to receive thousands of tons of sufferings and one kilo more, which means to totally empty my vessel and add some more negativity to it. Only then will I move from my place.

Thus two opposites meet: The more advanced I am the greater my desire. It hangs over me thus demanding greater work and curbing the process, so we have no choice. The desire responds only to pleasure or to pain and so we have to go through them.

But what is the use of these falls? Give me pleasure, and I will immediately freeze in my place, give me some deficiency, and I begin to move. It can be compared to an engine that runs on AC power: if you connect a constant current to it, it will stop. This is because the consistency doesn’t fill the deficiencies and the fulfillment in an alternating order of being emptied of your fillings. So what is required of me if the response of my desire was given to me from the start? How can I break out of this closed circuit?

This is why the mind develops by the desire as a separate parallel system. It accumulates information in its archive, identifies the causes and the goals, and evaluates the phases that it has been through and weighs the future states. Today, in the last the spiritual phase of our development, the cognitive element is the important one. Until now we have been pushed forward by our feelings and now the time has come to develop in our awareness.So our connection brings everyone wisdom by enabling us to exchange data and by providing great experience and a deep understanding. Thus we can avoid many troubles since the current state demands that we develop very quickly, and in several decades, if not before attaining the end of correction. So just imagine what afflictions we will have to go through.

So, the key to our development is education, understanding and recognition, and in activities that make a person feel and understand that feeling. A qualitative development is required here. On the whole, it’s very important for us to disseminate this wisdom; this is the uniqueness of our generation.
[85098]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

The End Of Childhood

Question: How can it be explained that the crisis is a consequence of our corrupt relations in the group?

Answer: There are two systems: the outer and the inner one. For simplicity we can define the outer system as the “Creator” and the inner, meaning us, as “creation.” The Creator is acting upon us and we are developing under the pressure of various factors. However, afterwards comes the time when we have to react with responses showing the Creator that we want to advance.

And here is where the problem occurs. Today we have to demonstrate our maturity and desire to join the Creator. Our “childhood” has ended. In reality the childhood ended back in the 15th century, at the time of Ari. Since then we are required to react to the influencing factors as adults, in a special way. We have to start growing independently until the inner sphere expands in its scale and properties to the size of the outer sphere. However, we are behind the schedule.

[85241]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

The Teachers Of The World

Question: During the breaks at the convention, there will be a presentation of books, the Internet, and so forth. Won’t this distract from the internal flow of the convention?

Answer: The fact is that we still must think about what we are coming out with to the world. A person leaves the convention, goes home, and what is next?

As our ascent depends on the dissemination breadth-wise, we must give everyone some knowledge about what it is in general that we do: the Internet, books, lectures, workshops, roundtables, and so forth. We must show all this to everyone. That is why there should be short fifteen-minute presentations during the breaks.

With what do we leave the convention? We leave with that which we need to take further into the world. Each of us should try to be a lecturer, an organizer of workshops, a distributor, and so on. I am addressing you, personally, everyone! The world will need the integral method; even now, it needs it, but it is not yet aware of this. And you will see in a couple of months that they will run after you; you will be in demand because no one except you will feel what should be done in any case to get the correct result, because you will think integrally.

You will be the teachers of the world, advisers to prime ministers and bankers and to ordinary workers because you will be able to see why this should happen, and not otherwise. This is what is called, “Come for a blessing.” You will be required and in demand. Thus, you still should be included in dissemination.
[85409]

An Ideal Educator

Development means constantly limiting the desire, which is inevitable. Even the most advanced educational approaches that do not use punishments still limit children but in other ways. An embryo in his mother’s womb also develops by limitations. All of nature is based on this principle, and if we kept it in our development, we would certainly avoid troubles and sorrow.

But we followed the opposite path and removed all the obstacles: Free your ego, abuse others as much as you can, abuse the whole world for your own interests. A person sees himself as great when he manages to steal millions and is respected for it. We have totally distorted our way by giving up any form of restraint. Our desires are not limited by anything and we can also see that on TV, in modern cultural and educational forms. Judging by what is happening with children and the youth, we are cultivating a generation that grows by beastly models and not human models of behavior and thinking. What kind of models does advertising present?

We see the outcomes: Without limiting ourselves, we reach collapse and sufferings, and we begin to understand that we have to change. This is what awaits us since we are not really suffering yet.

If we were as flexible as babies who can be easily directed to develop in the right way, if we responded to what is going on with the same speed, with the same readiness they do, then everything would be just fine. We could see that the Creator is the perfect educator and we wouldn’t come to Him with any complaints.

But in order to do that, we have to respond correctly to His educations and to be sensitive. Kabbalists tell us how we can acquire this attitude; they say we should connect and be “good kids,” we should be sociable, kind, and responsible for one another, to create mutual guarantee, etc.

Clearly, children don’t want to listen to anyone. They only want to go in every direction. But the grownups impose discipline on them and so does the Creator, although He hasn’t started to treat us seriously yet. One way or the other, the same laws penetrate through all the worlds, but the point is that we have to learn from nature and not invent artificial limitations.

This refers to the educators of children too. Nature shows us how, when, and in what way to limit them according to the stages of development. Actually nothing depends on us, we only carry things out. If we studied well the laws of creation and children’s’ nature, we would know exactly how to act in every phase, now and in the future. Ideally, an educator carries out nature’s orders. He never invents anything new but only implements its plan. This is his obligation: to gradually, day by day, bring the little person’s nature to match the upper nature.
[85095]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Measuring The Power Of Our Intention

The desire to receive cannot change anything except its intention. Imagine that your arms and legs are tied, what can you do? Nothing depends on you except your intention, similarly there is no other way the desire to receive can act.

It only knows how to receive, so let it receive and do the only thing it can do. The point is that sometimes it receives with the intention for itself and sometimes it closes itself and refuses to receive.

But how can I refuse to receive if my mouth is constantly open? How can I close myself? Only by my intention! If I don’t consider what I receive as receiving since it doesn’t bring me pleasure, it isn’t considered receiving any more.

Although I really want this filling, I don’t enjoy it since the desire was given to me by nature, but I don’t enjoy by the power of my recognition. The action of my desire to receive is to change the attitude to itself, to decide how to work with the desire.

To the extent that the Light influences me by allowing me to rise above my desire, I decide what to do with it: to restrict my desire or to allow myself to receive a little in order to enjoy. But what should I enjoy for? I may decide to enjoy for myself or for bestowal. It may be a necessary act of receiving which is not condemned or praised.

It all depends on what I enjoy for: in order to bring pleasure to the host, to the Creator, or in order to bring pleasure to myself. It may be that we both need to receive pleasure. If we connect like two loving friends, we enjoy the fact that we give to one another, which means the fillings or the connection between us.

We can have many such thoughts and decisions, but they are all related to the intention. I cannot change anything more than that: my mouth is open, my arms are tied—this is what my desire to receive looks like. Everything is solved only in “faith above reason,” in our thoughts. It is only about the actions that are below the Masach (screen).

Only my attitude to what happens to me counts, and it is the only thing that matters. I correct my attitude to what is going on until it becomes exactly like the Creator’s. This means that we have reached full adhesion with Him.

By that you will feel how important our intention is. Only our intention belongs to the level of the speaking. We measure our level according to the power of our intention.
[85163]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

The Main Thing Is To Hasten Time

We have to establish systems that constantly waken the group. If it says that the difference between a person who advances in his own pace and a person who advances like a beast that is forced from the outside is in the fact that a person hastens the pace of his advancement, (a couple of pulses every moment that he processes to the extent that he advances, the number of steps that he makes a minute), then we only have to spur ourselves in every possible way.

Rabash says that if someone shouts that your house is on fire, you won’t sit still and nod your head lethargically, you won’t continue your nap a couple of minutes longer, you will jump up and run in order to save yourself.

This situation doesn’t seem real to us, of course. Why? Because it depends on the environment. If the environment is calm, then even if I want to wake up, I come here and fall asleep. What can I do? I can’t resist this atmosphere.

So spurring a person totally depends on the environment. If a person is not forced, he will advance the usual way, “in its time.” All our correction is in hastening time. The states are predetermined for each one and cannot be changed. The change takes place thanks to a person’s preparation. Every state is a revelation of the Reshimot (reminiscences). If the Reshimo is revealed and I want to fulfill it and turn it into a certain level, I have to be prepared for it. If I am not prepared, the Reshimo comes and only lowers me and draws me further away. So the next time I will have to make two steps, and the time after that three steps, and thus I find myself each time further away and in greater delay.

This applies to the whole world, since there is no account with other people. If they haven’t received an awakening to spirituality, the “point in the heart,” the ability to hasten their development, how can they respond; what should they be awakened for? This is why the general illumination influences them—the crisis appears and there are different problems and troubles in every nation and in every part of humanity, just like in every individual’s private life. This, however, isn’t called “Divine Providence.” Divine Providence is when there is a relationship between a person and the Creator.
[85313]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

A Conscious Birth Of Humanity

The next level of our development is called “Human” but the human level isn’t our physical body and it isn’t the level that we’ve created in our civilization. After all, our civilization is built only upon serving our animal desires: food, sex, home, family, wealth, fame, power, and knowledge. None of these desires extend beyond the level of serving our corporeal needs.

It’s crucial for us to elevate above these corporeal needs to a spiritual level and to obtain the essence of a human. This is the next phase of development that humanity is now facing. The ease of this transition depends upon the extent to which we help ourselves to be born in this new realm, on this new level. Otherwise all of humanity will experience terrible birthing pains, which will be bloody and violent. Ultimately we will still be born on the next level. However, if we advance toward this consciously, then we help the birthing process just as the fetus does: The mother pushes him out and he helps her.

Today nature is pushing us toward being born through pressure and crisis. In its translation from Greek, the word “Crisis” means “birth of something new.” It’s not a downfall; rather it’s a revelation of something new, which is, of course, accompanied by birthing pains. This is why we must help ourselves to be born.

It truly is a birth and it’s a special one. In the past we weren’t consciously involved in our advancement, we were simply pushed by nature and we advanced egoistically. Now we elevate above our animal egoism, above our level, and consciously enter the next level where we will represent an integral humanity. This is being revealed today as nature is invoking us, pressuring us, and showing us our interconnection. Through this we obtain a total balance and harmony with nature. This truly is a healthy and conscious birth of humanity.
[85073]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 2/29/12

One Nation

Question: A person learns by example. What kind of examples should one see all around?

Answer: One should see solidarity and a good attitude toward others, above self-love. Indeed, the work is precisely in rising above the ego.

In life, typically if I’m at odds with somebody or if I don’t care about them, I don’t even notice them. I couldn’t care less about my coworkers—my relationship with them doesn’t extend beyond a friendly greeting. In light of the above, if we want to escape all the troubles, we must extend deliberate bonds above our ego. On the level of this world we perform the same work as in the spiritual: We begin to express a slightly warmer attitude toward one another. Why? Because our duty is to establish a connection. After all, therein lies the special power that is capable of mitigating our problems.

Such must be our approach: above the isolation and indifference we form—perhaps not love—but a mutual connection, so that we could feel as one nation.

It’s no accident that the crisis is demolishing borders and clearly demonstrating that all people are interconnected as though we all live in the same country. If we were to combine all our systems into a single whole, we would rise above the crisis.

It follows that I must find strength and direction in my environment, which must convince me of one thing only—that our unification will neutralize all problems. Everything that’s fraught with negativity today will instantly turn positive, as if by the wave of a magic wand.

Question: So all we’re talking about are positive relationships?

Answer: Yes. That is sufficient. I don’t care about anybody else, but together we start working on building a better society through the connection between us, one that’s brimming with life, prosperity, and optimism.
[85320]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The Mother’s Capital

Question: You say that in the current extraordinary circumstances, we need help from the women. What kind of force is this, which we will not be able to manage without?

Answer: Someone once said that behind every successful man stands a woman. Apparently, the greater his success so, to put it mildly, is the more serious her approach.

So, I would like to ask all our women, those whose husbands study with us and the single ones, at every opportunity, show the men that women expect unity and correction from them. Let them see that a great anxiety about the existing threats lives in every woman, so that we rise above the current state and correct it.

Every woman needs to show this. And in the family, of course, the maximum effect is achieved when the husband feels that his wife is expecting real spiritual actions from him.

It is important that every woman applies efforts. After all, women have a special talent that allows, even without words, at the level of feeling, awakening men to bring in a desire and send them in the right direction. This is not just a woman’s, but a mother’s property.

A man, not being able to give birth, remains somewhat of a “child” and thus has the opposite tendency—to obey. So, we, men, really need female support.

Question: By nature, a woman feels a characteristic need. What should it be aimed at today?

Answer: The world is in crisis, and this crisis has arisen for us to correct it through unity. First, we unite in groups, then in the people of Israel, on the “territory,” from which comes the Light that Reforms, and then in the whole world. We should take care that correction is spread in this order. A wife requires this from her husband, and, in general, every woman from every man, gently but persistently. They know how to do this…
[85327]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

My Spiritual Home

Question: What can we do so that everyone would continue feeling the congress as their home after the convention ends?

Answer: The fact is that every person should leave with the feeling as if he has created a virtual place for himself where he actually physically exists. Wherever he goes, he still stays in this place. He constantly lives in this energy, in this sensation.

Wherever he might be afterward, whether it is at home or at work, somewhere far away, thousands of miles away from the place of the congress, he still exists inside this energy, inside this balloon, inside this sphere, because there are no distances in spirituality. Therefore, it is very important to attend the convention physically.
[85197]
From a Virtual Lesson 7/29/12

The Sweet Syrup Of Unity

Question: If eventually everyone will know about the wisdom of Kabbalah, then is the mutual guarantee movement a temporary means?

Answer: Yes, but we don’t know how long it will take. After all, the point is not the name but in approaching people according to their desires. If in the meantime, a person wants to know how to succeed in his material life, I have to wrap my wisdom in wrappings that will be pleasant and comfortable for him.

On the whole it is about Lights and vessels, but for him these Lights should be expressed in good health, in his children’s education, in a comfortable life, a vacation, etc., so I explain to him that it is possible to attain all that by unity and by giving to others.

It essence is the same: the correction of the vessel. There is no other activity in this world. The question is only on what level a person acknowledges this. I measure his exact level of awareness and always give him the dose that he can digest and which I understand is for his own good. I dress the corrections with “clothing” that he can accept since he sees that it is for his own good.

I don’t suggest that a person should give up his comfort and devote himself to hard work and to the well being of others. I offer him a pleasant way to unite, which he will actually enjoy and which will also bear good fruit. I don’t tell people that something bad may happen to them, I don’t assign a fee for the wellbeing; on the contrary, together we use the wonderful means and reach wonderful results.

Accordingly I don’t feel the mutual guarantee as an obligation either, but as pleasant mutual help and concern for one another. It is all in the form of a “sweet syrup,” like for children. These are the same corrections, but in a hidden manner.

Question: So at what point is there a switch from mutual guarantee to Kabbalah?

Answer: I don’t know. It may be in another 30-40 years and it may be tomorrow. You see how things are happening now at a much greater pace.

But it doesn’t matter to me, I do what I can at the current historical moment and not more than that.

Question: Will only those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah be able to understand the real reason for the problems?

Answer: That’s right. The others will reach it either by the path of suffering or through our dissemination.

We are not hiding the role of the wisdom of Kabbalah, but why should we shout it in vain? Since things are getting worse, we can explain to people the reason for what is going on. But again, we don’t promise that there will be new problems, but we provide solutions for the current problems. We don’t call this solution “the wisdom of Kabbalah,” but “unity.” Why should we use a term that scares some people and is repulsive to others? After all, we are not changing the meaning, but getting closer to people. We don’t wave our finger at them scolding them, and we don’t scare them with stories about approaching disasters; we don’t condemn the egoism but offer them an idea: “Let’s unite together correctly and we will all feel good.”

No one can object to this and we will overcome the disrespect—the main thing is to get started.

We should tell people what they want to hear, we should speak so that they can perceive our ideas and implement them in their everyday life. Otherwise they will hate you; they will block the idea and disparage and discredit it. This is why it says: “Educate a child in his own way.”
[85015]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

A Spiritual Savings Account For A Rainy Day

If you were privileged to receive the Creator’s blessing, which means a spiritual ascent, that you can pray, study and work, then you should do everything in your power as you do that. You feel that suddenly you succeed in everything that you do, so use this wonderful opportunity, make an effort and do your very best. This is because there will be times when you won’t be able to lift a finger.

Besides, you should invest in the group as much as possible, like in a bank account that yields great return when you need the money. This is your savings account for rainy days, just as you fill the fridge with food for a week, just like a pension fund for old age, or like medical insurance in case you are ill.

If our vessel is a vessel of receiving, it can accumulate power, understanding, energy, readiness, and a connection with the cause and keep it for times of trouble. The point is that our vessel is made of two parts: the revealed and the concealed. The revealed part is my small vessel that I feel in our world: food, sex, family, money, respect, control, knowledge, and a little bit of spirituality just to add some spice.

But my true vessel is all the created beings: all the still, vegetative, and animate nature and human beings in this world. These are all my desires. If I invest in them, it comes back to me even without my knowing.

So if I have a chance to invest in others, I should do so, since it will undoubtedly come back to me. Everything I invest in them now is somehow related to bestowal, since I feel them as strangers to me. Therefore, the evil inclination is called a “helpmate,” since it helps me even now.

If I work with the friends, with the world, by wanting to invest my powers in them and bring them to goodness, I actually invest in my spiritual vessel in the spiritual sense by working against my desire to receive. I can do that even mechanically. It doesn’t matter what my intentions are as I do that as long as I perform the right actions. Our ego is a great help as it works against us.
[85168]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/8/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”