Feeling The Force Of Life

Question: How can one be in agreement with all the situations and at the same time to be directed towards the goal? How is it possible to knowingly attract the Light?

Answer: One has to try to feel the inner soul that directs you. Thus, it is called “wind” (Ruach – spirit), as if it moves within you and directs you.

In order to feel this, we are involved in connection and unity. Why does the connection give us the possibility to feel this spirit, this force of life that moves within us and motivates everything around us, but we feel only the results of it? Because the breakingof matter occurred; it, as if, broke into pieces and this spirit that holds together this material is not able to move, is not able to fill it.

The disconnection of this material causes suffering in us, lack of life, which is felt more and more, but we have to try to connect and unite the desires, as if collecting these fragments. And then we allow this spirit, this Light (Ohr Nefesh) to move, and we feel how it gives us life, how it requires us to be in motion both emotionally and intellectually.

In this way we collect more and more of these fragments; fitting them together, we will feel in what sense they go with each other, how complex the combination of our broken desires, our feelings, is. We will see the work of the Light in assembly, in correction, in complementing, all of us into one whole.

And that is the attainment of the Creator, of the 125 levels of attaining Him. But they all come from our attempts to connect between us and by that we invite great influence of the Light, of the spirit, that can already move even through the gaps between the part of the desire (matter), that all our movements are towards that, i.e., we towards Him and He towards us.
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From the Convention in St Petersburg 7/14/13, Lesson 5

The Difficult Task Of The Woman

Question: How can women help one another to pass through the states to become one? How can we work as a single Kli (vessel)?

Answer: I cannot put myself in the place of the woman. Sometimes I try to be clothed in her, but even from a state of spiritual perception it is impossible to feel the woman: her inner world, her comprehension, her philosophy of life. This is something completely opposite to a man.

Therefore when women ask questions like these, I don’t know what to answer. What can we do to become one? I can repeat those words with which you are familiar no less than I am. There are no other words or actions. The unity of women, this is a big problem.

For men it is easier to get rid of linking the spiritual work to their physical representation and to be left only with emotion. For a woman it is much more difficult to be released from the link with her external appearance and to be left only with emotion. After all, she embodies the desire that is linked to the source of fulfillment. And therefore she cannot get rid of her external appearance, and not from how she is seen, comprehended and felt by others.

To a man it doesn’t matter. For him all this is not important. He has another, freer relationship with himself and the world. The relationship of the woman is more dependent.

Therefore I don’t know what to advise. You simply need each one within herself and between you, to be more honest, more objective; each one directed not to herself but to everyone. You need to learn from each other how to go outside of yourselves, for this happens differently for you than for the men and in a much more complex manner.

It is very difficult to contend with this obstacle, but this is the work of the woman. With women this happens laterally, with men, vertically. That is how we grow. A woman is like a Kli, and a man is like the source, the conductor, the channel for her fulfillment. That is how this works together.

It is said that the Kli of the woman is wide and short (wide from the presence of Ohr Hassadim, and short from a lack of Ohr Hochma), while the male Kli is long and narrow (long from the presence of Ohr Hochma, and narrow from a lack of Ohr Hassadim). And this is not just in physiological form, but also according to the inner comprehension, according to the correction. Therefore it is necessary to work.

I repeat and say: It is necessary to be honest, not to be afraid of learning from one another how to do this. In no way to play one against the other, after all, you feel how each one plays, does something by herself. Be released from everything external. Don’t look at the outside—this is your task.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

A World Of Mercy Without Malice

Question: What does inclusion in the deficiencies of others mean? How does this happen?

Answer: When you are concerned for others, you are included in all of their deficiencies. They say that by way of five people you are connected with the entire world. It’s logical that if our groups work with dissemination, for example in South America, as of today close to half a billion people live there, so by way of connection with a few thousand people, by way of the general network, they receive the deficiencies of tens, and even hundreds of millions of people.

Our groups disseminate integral education to all corners of the world and in a form like this they awaken this connection. It’s logical that all the deficiencies caught in one “fish net” reach our center, and from here the method of correction is derived. And we absorb the deficiencies of the entire world and continue to raise them upwards to the Creator, to the “Malchut de Ein Sof,” wanting to be “as one man with one heart.”

When we work in the form of a pyramid like this, we correct the entire world and carry out work that is called the “work of the Kohanim – priests,” the work entrusted to Israel. All human deficiencies belong to the material world, the need for nourishment, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge. But we have reached such a crisis that we are not prepared even to fulfill the earthly desires without the right connection between us. And this shattering is discovered more and more every day.

Formerly we endured various private problems, divisiveness in the family, problems at work, and problems in the education of children. These problems did not threaten our existence directly. But today the problems have already risen to the level of the general ecology, health, the breakdown of the concept of the family, and mass unemployment. These are simple daily problems that our existence depends upon in this world.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/13

Quantity That Develops Into A New Quality

The desire to receive can be changed in size (in its density), beginning from the root level to the fourth level. And each one of them is divided further and further into sub-levels, and therefore ends with 125 degrees or levels. And everything in our world is also measured according to size, according to quantity, and the quantity influences the quality.

If we take some substance for example, its characteristics are established by the number of electrons, protons, and neutrons within the atom. The quality of the substance depends upon their quantity. If we add electrons, we get a new substance.

That is what happens with the still substance and the same thing can be related to plants, animals, and humans. For us it is more difficult to identify this in regard to our sensations, but this is so. Everything depends on how much effort we make, on the number of details that we gather from them. Therefore it is said, “There is none as wise as the experienced,” because he adds details all the time, until he attains a new quality, a new comprehension and feeling.

Everything depends on the simplest actions. Nothing exists in reality besides reception and bestowal. And in fact even bestowal doesn’t exist; rather, there is reception that transforms into bestowal thanks to intention. Everything is built on “plus” and “minus.”

Therefore all of the work is to constantly add quantity. And the quantity that is gathered begins to demand a new quality, an understanding of why and for what am I doing this. Questions begin to be awakened that bring us to more qualitative actions on a new level already. But also to them we need to add more and more quantity until we reach a new quality.

Through our actions we attract the Light that Reforms that acts all the time and adds a further drop of change all the time. At the end of the matter, “many pennies accumulate into a large sum ” until we reach the ability to carry out intentional actions that are measured not according to the actions themselves but according to the intention.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/13

Draw Power From The Group

Question: How do we create the right atmosphere today for the Unity Evening at Kibbutz Gaash?

Answer: It is not enough that we speak, we must act. So which physical actions will arouse us so that we will want to serve the external public and turn for its sake from the group to the Creator?

In a group I must nullify myself in spite of rejection, tiredness, and hatred towards the friends, and also in dissemination work I again nullify myself in spite of rejection, hatred, scorn, and ridicule from the public. I have the opportunity to nullify myself everywhere; there are no lack of problems. It is not enough that they “reject” me from two directions; rather, I ask only one thing from the Creator, that He will give me the strength to continue this work. That is how I “scrub” all the dirt of the ego from myself, layer after layer, until I am cleansed, will be pure, and rise to the level of “bestowal in order to bestow.”

During this work I am thrown in all directions, I make various calculations, until finally I truly reach “bestowal in order to bestow” and really work like an ant that doesn’t need anything for itself and has no life of its own.

Let’s go back to the Unity Evening. Which actions can be “imprinted” to demonstrate the work with the group with the general public that is directed towards the Creator? The main thing is to convey some kind of understanding of this work  to people, and on the other hand to exercise free choice. I nullify myself towards the public, towards the group and the Creator, transfer the center of gravity within this range of self-nullification to the intention of the actions.

It is up to us to express and to convey this in our Unity Evening. We connect the points in the hearts. Without this we don’t advance. Specifically the successful events of this type open opportunities for acts of spiritual bestowal before us.

The most serious situations have been offered to us for practical work that never before were given to Kabbalists for practical achievement. No generation before us was given the opportunity to connect the general public in a variety of places to the spiritual concept of connection between everyone, according to the principle “and you shall love your friend as yourself.”

It is clear that we act as much as we can, but this power needs to be drawn from the group. This power is derived from the connection between us. We are united in the face of all the tension, the rejection, the tiredness, and the unpleasant states and convey to people the sum of the individual forces, the collective intensity, of the connection between us.

It will be more and more difficult for us to connect, and through the overcoming that we do we can measure the power that we convey to others. The greater this power is, the greater the resistance, until we reach the state of the students of Rabbi Shimon that initially hated each other intensely, and after that received power from the connection to rise above the hatred. Before such potential, the entire world will be calmed and will accept this help.

Therefore, I don’t bring my power and my excitement from the group to people, but rather the connection between all the points, the collective power that I have acquired among the friends. And only from this will they be excited.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/13, Preparation to Unity Evenings

Back To Love

Question: I recognize the secret of dissemination and it is very simple. It is up to us to radiate happiness as a result of the connection between us. People will be specifically attracted to this, not to the suffering that pushes them away, but will be attracted to the happiness that we must disseminate. How do we maintain the dissemination of happiness all the time?

Answer: I will tell you what I did. I was sitting, writing books. I worked on the archive that was left to me from Rabash. It is up to each one to feel his mission. I reached Rabash when he was 75. I didn’t know how many years were left for him to live, but I knew that it was up to me to get as much as possible from him, and if I were not to get it, then all the knowledge that he had, everything, would go down the drain. I had the feeling that I was obliged to absorb and to record everything on audio tapes, to write everything down that he had. It could be that this was conceit or even audacity, but this held me.

I did not aspire to be number one after him. Even now, I don’t feel that way, I don’t like this very much since this only makes life complicated. I felt that I was obliged to receive, to drink from this well to the end, so that this knowledge would not disappear. Instead, it would be disseminated to everyone. This was the feeling of my mission. This really held me.

More than this, I have nothing to add. Do what Rabash wrote: connection, the happiness of the goal, a feeling of need and of having been chosen for a great and difficult mission.

Think about it. What is it to be parents? On the one hand, you are happy to see them developing, growing, and on the other hand, you are very concerned about them. Certainly, you want them to grow to be more successful, but what if this is not so? How disappointed and frustrated would you be? And much more so than with your own lack of success.

That is to say, your concern is in others. They give us an example of natural love on the animate, most primitive level. If, as a reaction, they also love you, then this love for you is much stronger, and the sorrow, the suffering of the loved one, is much more terrible and tragic, than your personal suffering, for love amplifies all sensations 620 times.

Therefore, if we would have a feeling of love between us, then the world simply would “explode with jealousy” because of our happiness. Therefore, the entire secret is always to return to love. So, if we relate this way to humanity, they suddenly will feel what kind of people we are and what is happening between us. However, even now, when they see us together, they wonder about the meaning of the strange “superhuman” relationships that there are between us.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

Three Levels Of Learning

Question: How is it possible to maintain the intention “for the sake of the friend” most of the time and the intention “for my sake” only for a little time?

Answer: We are found in the world of Assiya, the world of action, because we don’t have the right intention and we can awaken it only by means of action, by way of all kinds of movements in matter. Therefore it is written, “Hearts are drawn after deeds.”

Friends in the group need to feel your aspiration, you must give them an example. After all, when you show them your aspiration, the importance of the goal, you try in all kinds of forms, even shrewd ones to awaken the friends as if playing with them and unintentionally showing them your excitement; this also helps you somewhat. But the greatest help isdissemination.

It is written: “I learned much from my teachers, and from my friends even more than from my teachers, and from my  students, most of all.” (Masechet Ta’anit 7a). My teachers, this is the highest level, from them it is possible to learn only when you are found like an embryo (Ubar) in regard to them, and in the fetal state you can acquire only the Surrounding Light.

You enter into them, cling to the walls of the uterus and remain in this state for nine months. This is called the “fetus,” which is to say, totally unconscious development.

Within the fetus it is as if emotion develops, but the fetus itself doesn’t feel anything. It reacts, yet this is not its reaction, rather the reaction of the body in regard to what is higher, in regard to the teacher. In a form like this each one is found within the teacher like a fetus.

Relative to the friend, you are on the same level and the only action between you is connection. So interaction like this cannot be carried out with what is higher or with what is lower, because the coupling, the connection, can only be if someone is equal. This is to say, the forms of the desires, the intentions of the friends complete each other as in a puzzle.

The third level is when you teach. Then the Light descends on you because there is a group of students in front of you (a Kli), they open their mouths like chicks and you must feed them.

In this circumstance you draw the Surrounding Light onto yourself (not even you, rather them). Therefore it is written, “From my students I learned most of all.” Why most of all? – Because in the first case you receive the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), in the second case, you complete each other, which is to say Hassadim plus Hochma—a small illumination of perfection.

In the third case, you truly receive a great Light that the students attract through their desires, unconsciously, incorrectly, it doesn’t matter which, and this Light passes through you.

If we didn’t internalize this and would run to the world to disseminate, we would get tremendous results. And it doesn’t matter what is disseminated: integral education or thewisdom of Kabbalah. What difference does it make? The main thing is that in any case you must teach them what they want if they truly want this. Therefore, if we teach, disseminate, serve, bring connection, which is what we aspire to ourselves, then we get a positive result.

So what does the wisdom of Kabbalah exist for? To discover the Creator within connection. Therefore they do the same thing. So it is written that all the people who don’t feel the Creator will lift upon their shoulders those who have the “point in the heart” and will bring them to the mountain of the Creator, which is to say, they will elevate them. They will push, compel us, perhaps harshly, perhaps softly, so that we will be elevated and will provide them with the knowledge, the fulfillment that they require.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

Connection Between The Groups Is The Correction Of The World

Question: Lately, we are witness to Europe and Russia beginning to connect. Also, here in the convention, we truly are feeling this. How can we connect all of our sparks together?

Answer: Understandably, that would be remarkable. If this were possible, then this would be the materialization of our dream. The dream would have become reality. Then, all of our friends would be able to rise above their mentality, above the historical separation, above the contradictions and even above the hatred, and the main thing, above the Babylonian repulsion, above the difference in languages. If they were ready to rise above “Ancient Babylon” that now is being revealed more and more among us, then there would not be any more need to change anything.

Why is the global crisis happening? It indicates to us the pre-Babylonian civilization that existed in Babylon before the general separation: the division, the disagreements, and people stopped understanding each other. In general, this is not talking about languages, not about philology, but about the disappearance of mutual understanding between people.

What is this global world? The global world is being revealed as a system that existed before the Babylonian separation. This system was divided and now is connecting again, and motility called a “crisis” is taking place.

In ancient Babylon, the crisis advanced from a state of wholeness to a shattered state, and with us, after three thousand five hundred years, the movement is from the shattered state to the whole state. The world is returning to itself to its source.

If our groups were able to connect with the help of various mechanisms (helping mechanisms, virtual and more), then without a doubt, this would be remarkable. However, for the Europeans, it is very difficult to reach connection—very difficult! Europe is the most sensitive place with a rich history and a multitude of painful issues, with general, mutual hatred, whereas if we could rise above all this… This is extremely difficult. It is necessary to go through huge “pitfalls.”

I very much hope that the Americans will become an example because our students, our friends from the Education Center, are together with us. They have good organizers faithful to us. As of this moment, they are working together with the friends on the gradual connection, on the approach toward us.

If this truly will begin to be realized, we will feel an intense spiritual push forward. Perhaps this will become an example to Europe, and then they will also begin to depart gradually from the crisis.

Throughout history, it happened that in places where the Kabbalists once lived, the economy, the trade, and the culture always prospered. However, the moment that they were expelled from the country, everything died. Therefore, I hope very much that, first of all, this will lead these nations to prosper.

However, the most important thing is that this is the very core of correction, when we, or at least those who are engaged in the science of integral connection, will be able to realize it together. And in the nations of Europe and in a number of states in the United States, people are learning alone or in solitary groups who don’t want to connect.

Do you think that this can be realized in a different way? People still don’t hear, but I hope that they will hear. We need to write about this subject more clearly, more openly, so that everyone will see where this leads. Do not wait until they guess it is the correction of the world. The connection between our groups is the correction of the world.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

Health Benefits Of Choral Singing

In the News (from BBC News): “Choir singers not only harmonise their voices, they also synchronise their heartbeats, a study suggests. Researchers in Sweden monitored the heart rates of singers as they performed a variety of choral works.

“They found that as the members sang in unison, their pulses began to speed up and slow down at the same rate. …

“The researchers also found that choral singing had the overall effect of slowing the heart rate.

This, they said, was another effect of the controlled breathing….

“The researchers now want to investigate whether singing could have an impact on our health.

“There have been studies on yoga breathing, which is very close to this, and also on guided breathing and they have seen long-terms effects on blood pressure… and they have seen that you can bring down your blood pressure.

“We speculate that it is possible singing could also be beneficial.”

My Comment: When people interact with each other, they begin to connect with each other through their organs, like one body, and in this case, we can treat patients by including them among the healthy.

Impulses Derived From The Heart

Question: How does one pass from a show and incomprehensible phrases to true feeling and expression?

Answer: In our world a person is accustomed to putting on a performance in the presence of others: holding himself a particular way, talking, and emulating heroes from a television series. This is because we are educated by examples: We behave according to examples that we see in life or on the screen.

All of our lives, all of our behavior consists of prefabricated structures prepared in our brain from the start. How to sit, how to stand, to eat, to speak, and so forth, all this is composed of very small images that are found within our heads and have them all the time and we  pull them out and play them like a broken record: one, two, three… that is how we behave.

But now we need to play ourselves for the first time. And here a person becomes perplexed and doesn’t understand what to do. He is confused like a little child who repeats everything aping the adults until he learns to imitate them in every way,  and he obtains these images. And then he already behaves in accordance to them. He knows that it is necessary to behave there like this and here in another way. Adults laugh and he laughs too, even though he doesn’t know about what.

But we have no examples of behavior in spirituality. This is a separate and complex subject. Therefore try to be with them as yourselves, without expectations; I am like this here, from the heart. Don’t pay attention to anything! Just as a few friends appeared here, this broke them in this kind of form and that’s it, we must be like them all the time.

Question: But what if I say something that is not according to the rules?

Answer: This doesn’t matter! What rules can there be? If you speak from the heart, then anything goes.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 4

The Prospects Of Spiritual Video Conferences

Question: How can we speed up the process of the Creator really becomes important to us so we will think and worry only about His desires and not about our desires?

Answer: The moment we connect and unite sufficiently, you will begin to feel the Creator.

Today the “carrying capacity” of the connection line between us isn’t great; it isn’t enough for us to properly unite and connect to the Creator. The moment our connection is of the sufficient  quality and quantity, we will connect to its “broadcast stream,” although it is still without a “picture” but only in audio format.

One way or the other, it all depends only on the connection between us. When we connect, we provide the Creator with the “line of communication” with sufficient “bandwidth,” so that this channel will become important to us even to some extent. Then we will expand it gradually by our mutual unity.

In the meantime, however, the connection between us is so weak that we even forget about it. There is not even an “audio chat” not to mention a “video conference “…
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/08/13, Questions and Answers

Warning Virus!

Question: What is the correct pressure a group can exert on a person to compel him to develop spiritually? How is it different from the pressure that can shatter a person? What is compulsion in spirituality?

Answer: There is no coercion in spirituality, there is only an example. Only example!

I suggest bringing up children in an identical manner. Until I understood this myself, years went by, I aged, my children grew. But essentially this is how it is.

Only through example can you educate, interest, help someone internally, and change someone spiritually. Just showing him that you make an effort and do some kind of work awakens jealousy in a friend and this gives him an example: This is the only way, nothing else!

This is not pressure. Typically we exert pressure on a person only in a case where he is harmful. The harm is the intentional disclosure of frivolity: “Ah…it is possible to think…,” this cannot be forgiven.

That is to say, it is impossible to look at this, to hear, and to see this. It is impossible for this to exist! If there is a person like this in a group, get rid of him immediately! I advise you! This is a terrible virus! It could be that by nature he is a serious person. But if he permits something like this outwardly or seems to be intentionally boastful, then he has no right to remain in a group! All the rest is not so bad, other than revealing frivolity.

A person should show positive examples to the group. If he arrives and begins to brag that he has earned millions or he begins to inflate all kinds of goals that we don’t want, then he must leave the group. He must be excited only about our goal, the abilities of our group, and what is found ahead for us, within our attainment.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 4

Exiled Of His Own Free Will

Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: As long as we followed the path of Torah, we remained safe.

As we all know, all the commandments of the Torah come down to one main rule “Love thy friend as thyself.” All the commandments are the correction and the changing of our desire to receive from the intention of in order to receive to in order to bestow. So if the people of Israel performed all these corrections and kept the principle of love, they wouldn’t suffer from all the afflictions of being in exile.

On the other hand, we have to understand that the exile is essential; we have to feel it and to actually be immersed in it for some time.

It isn’t by chance that a couple of centuries ago Kabbalists in eastern Europe used to exile themselves, a person would leave his home and wander not knowing where to. He walked around among people and encountered different troubles and problems and found himself in different situations that allowed him to “mingle” among all those who hated him.

Such voluntary exile helped hasten the general exile so that it would end much sooner than the predetermined date. Kabbalists didn’t do it for themselves but actually in order tobestow. Today it is hard to imagine what situations and afflictions they put themselves through. Yet, they felt they had to go through all that in order to acquire the real power to turn to the Creator.

Theoretically, however, if the people of Israel had kept the law of love and had not adopted the manners of their neighbors, they wouldn’t have been incorporated in them in exile and wouldn’t have discovered the evil and hatred others feel towards them. So all the bad things that are discovered are actually the same “hardenings of the heart” that we didn’t manage to turn into ascents and which thus have caused us to descend…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Diagnosis: Lack Of Connection With The Environment

Question: I understand what disturbs me from reaching the goal now,  I lack the “What for?” I see that I have everything that it takes to advance, but I take a step back knowing that it is possible to get something more in this world…

Answer: Where are you getting thoughts like these? You see, they didn’t disturb you before like they do now. This says that you are not sufficiently concerned about holding onto the goal. And if your environment is okay, then something is not okay with you.

This is your diagnosis: lack of connection with the environment. If connection with them was strong, surely no external thoughts could be aroused in you.

The moment that I found my teacher, Rabash (I searched for a teacher for a long time, I passed through several teachers before him), I struggled to adhere to him completely; in this way I burned all the bridges behind me.

Question: How can I arouse importance like this in me? I don’t know what to do, how to move myself.

Answer: In the moments that they give you great desire, it is necessary to realize it, so that afterwards you won’t have the possibility of withdrawing. You see, after this they will give you such great difficulties and you will need to overcome them. And if I burn the previous bridge behind me, the previous level, I can no longer retreat. And they give me enormous difficulties! And I have nowhere to escape! This is very important. In a way we are not aware that escape routes always remain for us: “It’s not so bad,” “later,” “I don’t feel so good now,” and we begin to feel sorry for ourselves. That is how the despicable self-love speaks in us.

You have a group, study, work, dissemination, and everything. But you must connect yourselves to this! Otherwise you withdraw all the time and the turbulence doesn’t let you move forward. The group must check all its friends and influence them this way, drawing them towards more serious adaptation within it. This is our problem.

On the one hand, we want the group to be as large as possible, that everyone will come without conditions. What difference does it make if a person comes to the lessons twice a week or seven times a week? What difference does it make if he learns seriously or listens with half an ear? He simply is not ready for anything else! How many people go into science? All the rest wanted to leave school! Which is to say, in principle, we don’t need stringent limitations for entry into the group. All who want to should come! Especially now when we are speaking so much about integral education!

And on the other hand, we must tighten the connection between us as much as possible, and hold onto each other. But if I look at those who come once a week; I will be like this myself.

Here we are found in a contradiction again, which is typical in our path and we still cannot find the middle ground. If good ideas come to you on this matter, I will gladly listen to them.
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From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Three” 7/14/13, Lesson 5

Correction Begins From The Center

Baal HaSulam, “A Handmaid That Is Heir To Her Mistress”: As a whole, the worlds are considered internality and externality. This is similar to a heavy load, which none can lift or move from place to place. Hence, the advice is to divide the load into small parts and subsequently transfer them one at a time.

So, corrections are carried out in sequence, one after the other. This is how we should relate to what happens in our world, in our state, and everything needs to be corrected in that way.

Before we turn to correcting the world, meaning our external vessels, desires, that belong to AHP, we have to concentrate and correctly unite as inner vessels Galgalta ve Eynaim. We need to correctly realize our common point in the heart so that it becomes strong and connected together. All its strength is related to how much it’s connected in all its parts. These parts take various forms, and our task is to unite them. This is the group and the mutual guarantee that we have to achieve.

As much as we can, we reveal outer circles around ourselves, which we should care about. And we continue until we encompass, “cover,” the entire reality of desire. Thus, our work is divided into two parts:

1. Unity of the group
2. Unification of this world.

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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

A New Life Where Truth Is Sweet

Question: If we had to clarify things according to truth or lie instead of bitterness and sweetness, will we discover that everything that is bitterness is actually the truth?

Answer: On the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, sweetness is the truth and bitterness is a lie. People constantly clarify this point. We can see it especially with small children and when they grow up it becomes more concealed. The lie blurs the clarifications and they don’t seem so prominent any more.

It turns out that I can exert myself and seem like a real warrior, dedicated to some abstract idea, but it is all a lie. This abstract idea, this sublime cause simply seems so sweet to me and so I am prepared to do everything in my power to attain it. All our clarifications are aimed only at attaining sweetness. Actually we are not ready to lift a finger until the Upper Light enables us to do so which is called “faith above reason,” the force of bestowal.

Until then there is no way we can do anything if we don’t see any benefit in it for our desire to receive for the sake of sweetness. I can change one benefit for another thanks to the understanding, the recognition, the envy, the passion, the respect, the influence of the environment, the popular attitude, and out of the fear of what people may say about me and whether my friends would justify me.

All this affects my behavior, but only because my values change and what seemed to be bitter before doesn’t seem so anymore. It is because now I know that if I use this bitter thing, I will be awarded with the support of my environment, so it doesn’t seem so bitter anymore, but rather is felt as sweet.

The sweetness I feel from the environment that tells me how great I am, what a hero, and the fact that everyone wants to be my friend is now added to the bitter taste that I have felt. It turns out that I feel sweetness on a totally different level of taste. But still it is sweetness for which it is worthwhile to make an effort, and so I change.

It seems that I go through certain changes and corrections and that I ascend, but it all takes place in my desire to receive and nothing actually changes. The real change can only be by the Light that Reforms. When a person receives it, he feels what a change really is.

Therefore it is said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Without tasting, we don’t see anything. You think that you are changing, but in fact, the changes are only on the level of this world. You may become more “human” and worry less about your corporeal body, but it is all thanks to your desire to enjoy that is simply more complex, deep, and egoistic, on more refined and disguised levels of the ego.

Everything is simple for a small child. If something is sweet, he wants it, and if it is bitter, he doesn’t want it. But a grownup can cope with bitter taste, and if it is justified and valued by society, he feels this bitterness as sweetness. Then he already thinks that he is big and special and that he has already corrected his taste, but in fact, he is still the same egoistic child but more cunning and corrupt.

This is how our life passes until we finally arrive at the recognition of evil. Thanks to all these changes, we turn the tastes that are bitter for a baby into sweetness for a grownup, but they do not contribute it to anything. We don’t reach the fulfillment of our desire this way.

On the contrary, we reach a point where the desire is totally empty and we have no means of changing ourselves in order to feel a certain pleasure. Thus humanity finally reaches a barrier, a critical point, where it has to decide that it needs the upper force that will change our reality and change us.

This means that we need the Light that Reforms, but people don’t know that it exists and so we have to explain to them that it is possible to change this reality and to rise together by the new consciousness that allows us to reach sweetness instead of the bitterness through the connection between people. There, in this connection we feel a new life.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/13,Writings of Baal HaSulam