Towards A Natural Standard Of Living

Question: We need to build a society that will be closer to nature. So then what will be technological advancement? Will some kind of simplification of life take place?

Answer: Why do you care about mechanics if everything will pass to a new qualitative level? Suppose there won’t be technological advancement. So what? What do you need it for? You see that there has been enough change in the power of our technology to supply us with a rational way of life.

Imagine you have a puppy living with you and you think about what is necessary for him. You consult an expert and he says that you must feed him something specific and he must sleep in a particular place. You don’t even think of giving him other nourishment or letting him lay down to sleep anywhere else. Certainly you want to give him soft down pillows and cookies for him.

But the body doesn’t require this, this is damaging, rationality is demanded. Therefore if we are talking about what we must supply for our body and  for the needs of all the people in the world, we must stop throwing away the food surpluses and feed the entire globe. The problem is not that there isn’t adequate food. Rather, it’s in that we don’t want to distribute it to everyone.

It’s the same thing with everything else. Certainly we will continue to develop technology further, but in order to be less involved with it. Today, it’s only necessary to plug in automatic machines and all of humanity won’t work at all. There only remains a need for experts who will follow the work of the machines and improve them from time to time, increase the efficiency of their operation.

Life will be simplified to its natural level. Industry, technology, commerce and all the rest will be at a level to supply every person with the necessities required for animal existence. And accordingly, the economy, finance, and all the rest will gradually move along these lines.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/13

The First Drink Of Freedom

It is said that “confidence is the clothing for the Light.”Confidence refers to the Returning Light, the Light of Hassadim, a state of a righteous who doesn’t even have a shirt but doesn’t need one either, because he has such a strong Light of confidence.

We don’t understand this since our whole world exists by the force of receiving. The Creator is the force of bestowal, the spiritual world, that is our spiritual state which is in accordance with the Creator, means that we with our force of receiving acquire the Creator’s force of bestowal and manage to integrate these two forces in us.

The spiritual world, which means our spiritual state, is established when we balance these two forces. We don’t understand what the force of bestowal is. It’s a totally different heart and mind. It isn’t just an opposite state that we can somehow imagine as being like the opposite of our state. It’s impossible to imagine it since there is nothing in us that belongs to bestowal, to giving. Whatever we consider bestowal is not bestowal at all.

Therefore, it says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Acquiring a second nature is called birth, redemption, as it it written: “I have seen an opposite world.” The force of bestowal is attained from Above. Only when the Reforming Light comes do we feel and understand what it is by starting to work with it to some extent.

Our first impression of the Light that Reforms is a certain feeling of freedom, of being independent of the desire to receive, of the desire to fill myself, of worrying about myself, of the constant feeling of my vessel, of the deficiency, of looking for something else that can fill me. Once we experience the first feeling of freedom, we also have a feeling of confidence. We stop examining and checking our vessel, how full it is and to what extent it needs a filling, and measuring everything with regard to myself.

We stop asking, “What have I got?” and begin to ask, “What can I give?” or at least try to do so. We receive the Light that Reforms that raises us and brings us to a level on which we become independent of our desire to receive. This means that one acquires confidence. The more we can restrict ourselves and the higher we raise the Returning Light by wanting to fulfill bestowal by ourselves, the more we acquire the force of confidence and the Light of Hassadim in which we can reveal the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, Shamati #72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

The Union Of The Points In The Heart

It is desirable for the word “Arvut (mutual guarantee)” and all the terms of this concept to became closer and as clear to us as possible. Therefore, we must begin to work on this more and reveal the connection it assumes between us.

Everyone should be above the others in order to take care of them and set the right example. Everyone should feel below others in order to get an awakening and inspiration from them because a person will not have the strength to advance without this. And everyone should be concerned that we are absolutely equal, no more and no less—absolutely equal!

On this path, we will start to feel each other internally. I will not see a friend as a material body. I’ll suddenly cease to distinguish his face; it will disappear. I will not notice his clothes and external features. Then, I will even stop seeing his qualities, his character, the habits which first constituted his image for me. I will not relate to an external image, not to his character, behavior, and qualities derived from birth or acquired throughout life.

I will not see his clothes, his physical body, or character traits, but only the innermost point that is called the opposite side of the holy soul. Of course it is still uncorrected, but yet it wants very much to draw itself to the Surrounding Light so that it becomes corrected.

This point is called the point in the heart. The connection between our points, the mutual guarantee, is the means for drawing the Light. This is how we need to see every friend instead of bodies, character traits, or demeanor. All of this is given to a friend from Above and makes him act in this way, or I see him like this “to the extent of my own flaws.” But the main thing is to see the inner point and the desire to unite with it.

The connection of these points into one whole is called a Minyan. It is a union of points in the heart that are ready to act and apply all possible efforts in order to achieve similarity with the Upper Light. It begins to shine on them to the extent of their similarity and yearning for the property of the Light. The Lights always exists; the movements occur only inside the desire.

Everything depends on the connection of the inner points in the heart that attract the Light, on its strength and quality, the reason why we want to connect, and how we overcome obstacles. As soon as we fulfill the required measure of efforts (Seah), we obtain a sufficiently strong desire to unite; the Light completes our first action of unity and brings us to the first adhesion (Zivug), the first contact with the Creator.

Thus we realize our mutual guarantee; that is, we are “together,” so much in guarantee for each other that we turn into one whole. This is the first spiritual degree in which we reveal the upper world, the upper force, the true reality that is above the one in which we are now. This world appears illusory to us like in a dream.

The first correct attitude is to exit oneself from one’s body and garments, all egoistic desires, thoughts, and habits, all innate or acquired qualities. I feel only the point in the heart and want to glue it to the friends. This means that I am going towards the mutual guarantee, the first point of unity.

Thus connected by the Upper Light, we reach the first vessel. All our points are opposite to unity, but our pressure, the tension created between these points reveals to us how much we are inherently not able to connect, and at the same time we want to.

Baal HaSulam describes this state in “Letter 19” in the example of the relationship between a man and a woman who deliberately separate and cannot connect, but at the same time, feel a great desire to be together. As a result, this leads to an explosion of the connecting force overcoming the force of separation, and then we reach unity. “And his seed is for the good,” this is our first spiritual state called birth. In our world, children are born as a result of the connection between a man and a woman, and in the spiritual world, the result of our adhesion is the birth of a new state.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/13, Preparation for the Convention

Exceeding Human Powers

Efforts that are required for our advancement are beyond human powers because the desire to enjoy alone cannot free itself fromegoism. However, we can act in a way that we move towards correction to the best of our ability in the circumstances that were prepared for us by the Light.

So far, our exertions are associated with our current level; that is, they are at still, vegetative, and animate levels. However, if we make all the necessary efforts at an animate level, the Upper Light will start influencing and changing us. The quantity of efforts needed will be breached and the Upper Light will finish the work as it is said: “applied efforts and found…”

However, if the Light rules everything there is and influences our desires, how can we possibly make any efforts, even the tiniest moves? There is nothing but the Light and the desire that opposes it. The third, additional force that allows us to act is a result of theshattering of the desire.

It means that there are multiple splinters of the desire around us that are detached from each other because of their egoistic nature. If we acted at our “level” and tried to become closer together with others, we would “change” under the influence of the Light. This world is the last and the lowest step in the Universe that allows us to act against our own will. That’s why one is able to unite with one’s friend as if they were brought closer together by the Light. This isn’t really real; desires do not change because of our actions, and yet our impact on the Light does change and that’s why the system works.

The miracle happens at the level of this world that is so low and minor that it is completely opposite to spirituality. On one hand, this world is totally detached from the spiritual realm; on the other hand, it presents to us a wonderful chance that allows us, through physical and external convergence and false actions to influence our internal desires. Our internal desires impact the Light that Reforms, which in its turn begins secretly influencing us until it truly changes our desire.

It means that even though we dwell in this world and have not advanced too far beyond monkeys, we still have an internal possibility to grab the end of a thread that is extended to us from Above, which will pull us out into the world of the Upper Light. If we use the remedies that are given to us and if we understand that they are granted to us from Above, we will trigger the vital awakening from below (itaruta de-letata) that will in its turn elicit the awakening from Above (itaruta de-leila).

To achieve it, all we need is a clear understanding of the sequence of work to be done: what exactly we have to achieve and what the Light actually is. This kind of understanding will protect us from making mistakes and from false expectations about salvation coming without our preliminary exertions and thinking that with time everything will be organized all by itself. One should never be misled to think that there are people who can easily overcome all stages, and who do not have to go through the “four hundred (400) years of exile.” They just don’t exist. We should keep in mind that we have to do everything ourselves and work hard to build a group, attain unity, and mutual guaranteeand reveal the power of connection between us.

If we realize that we are given every possible remedy to achieve the result we aspire for, to implement the purpose of our life, we will not be despaired; rather, we will proceed with our work and achieve success. Besides, after all calculations are done, we will have to rise above the results and understand that the mere opportunity to apply efforts is in fact the reward we seek!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah lesson 11/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

There Is No Evil Without Goodness

When we advance in our work, we first have to accept that there is no evil without goodness and that there is no goodness without evil. We have to reach the final state in which all of the evil is revealed and in against it all the goodness; one sustains the other as “the advantage of the Light in the darkness.” The greater the darkness, the better chance we have to discover a greater Light in contrast to it.

This is how the creation is arranged because we always find in it two forces, two parts, two attributes, which are basically the Creator and the created being.

So if we want to advance, we have to know in advance that we can do so only by increasing the negative force and the positive force in contrast to it. But the negative force grows first; as it says: “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” So they keep appearing alternately, the negative force and the positive force, negative and positive.

Our role is to find the place for the middle line in which we can exist and determine our balanced states. This balance is possible only if we unite and connect. Then each one adds his own state to everyone else, and thus we bring everyone to a state of balance.

If we examine the balance point, we will discover HaVaYaH in it that is direct and opposite, the ten Sefirot of the Direct Light and the ten Sefirot of the Returning Light, which is a whole spiritual structure called a Partzuf. This is the structure that reaches a state of balance.

It is an elementary principle, two opposite forces that reach a state of balance and thus establish all of reality.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13

Genuine Creation

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“: And yet, we understand that according to the Thought of Creation, there was no need to create anything more than that will to receive. This is because this new creation is sufficient for Him to fulfill the entire Thought of Creation, which He had thought to bestow upon us. But all the filling in the Thought of Creation, all the benefits He had planned to render us, stem directly from His essence (Atzmuto), and He has no reason to recreate them, since they are already extracted, existence from existence, to the great will to receive in the souls. Thus we evidently see that all the substance in the generated creation, from beginning to end, is only the “will to receive.”

Baal HaSulam emphasizes that there is Atzmuto, the original root, from which the action originates. The action of the Creator is the created being. But created beings do not originate from the Creator Himself; He creates them out of nothing. What comes from Him is the decision, but the “material” from which they are created, is produced out of nothing. This is the act of creation. The Creator did only this.

We are unable to understand and do this. We reveal every thought, every decision, everything in which the attitude of Atzmuto to creation is expressed. This is what we do not know at all. However, we discover His attitude toward us. This is called the “thought of creation.”

Question: Do we create anything new that was not in creation? Otherwise, how do we become similar to the Creator?

Answer: No. We become similar to Him by the properties, but not by creation. Being His created beings, we cannot create anything new. We accumulate, combine forces, so that the likeness of the Creator is formed in us. However, this cannot be called a “new creation” because we use the forces and “materials” that have been created. We do not create.

Question: But the revelation of the Creator, isn’t it creation?

Answer: No. The concept of “creation” (Beria - בריאה) means something external, extending beyond the limits of the existing (Bar - בר), “existence out of absence.” We already use the existing means and carry out correction, imitating creation. We reveal what already exists and thus return to the world of Infinity.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Characteristics Of Our Times

In our days a very great conflict is being created between the elites and the impoverished masses. With every passing day the gap between them grows and is acquiring threatening dimensions. The tension is growing in society. We see how nationalistic, fascists regimes are gradually rising in many countries as a natural reaction to what is happening.

The elites cannot part from the movement towards wealth. With each devaluation, they are becoming wealthier, while the masses become more and more impoverished and lack perspective. A serious problem is created in society. The tension and polarity reach very great dimensions and already begin to be felt in the developed nations.

The third world nations still live in poverty and it’s doubtful if their inhabitants will ever succeed in reaching a condition of wellbeing. A question about the future of the world is appearing: What can be done about all this? The wisdom of Kabbalah warned about the development of events like these. What we talked about 10 – 15 years ago is beginning to be realized now; moreover, this is being realized very rapidly.

We can expect to see conditions that will not be good for us. People feel this. The feeling of no escape can be seen in their lack of desire to raise families, to give birth to children. A tremendous number of people living in the western nations and in America (65 – 70%) suppose that it will be much worse for their future children than it is for them; therefore, they don’t want to give birth to them.

In such a complicated time like this, the wisdom of Kabbalah has appeared, a hidden method for changing the world, which has waited for this moment and which warned about it many years ago. We know that Baal HaSulam traveled to Poland to convince people of the need to change. He wrote to many leaders in the world trying to prevent the Second World War. For Kabbalah speaks about this, that according to the development of creation in four stages there may be four world wars.

Kabbalah begins to proclaim louder and louder that it has a means for helping the world that has no need for anything besides this. We see how the greatness and importance of scientists and philosophers has fallen, how the leaders of the nations are gradually impotent. This is the natural movement of evolution which cannot be stopped.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries” Day Three 12/15/13, Lesson 5

Weapon Of Envy Directed Against Oneself

Rabash, “Love of Friends”: The most important thing is to always remember the purpose of creation, which is known to be “to do good to His creations.”… In other words, the purpose of creation is not necessarily for a select group, rather the purpose of creation belongs to all creations without exception. It concerns not necessarily merely the strong and skillful, the brave people who can overcome, but all the people.

See the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” Item 21, Midrash Raba, Parashat“This is the Blessing”: The Creator said unto Israel: “Regard the whole wisdom and the whole Light are easy things. He who fears Me and does deeds of Torah, the entire wisdom and Light are in his heart.”…and do not despair mid-way and flee the campaign, but rather believe that the Lord can even help the person as low and ignoble as I am. It means that the Creator will bring me near Him and I will be able to attain adhesion with Him.

The main thing is patience, perseverance! Anything, just don’t run away, and eventually you will reach fear. Fear begins with the usual animal fear of blows. Gradually, it becomes more and more clarified. Thus, we come to the blows by our egoism, pride. Then there will be blows of envy, similar to those that we received yesterday when we heard about the extraordinary achievements of the group that is now working on the program ofintegral education.

This news deprived many of sleep, but it is useful because this helps us to make a good discernment. Now, we understand a bit better what envy means on the spiritual level. I just needed to turn this envy from “Why don’t I have this?” to the opposite, as much as it is possible, to push the friends forward to success. This is very difficult.

Everything depends on the concern, fear for the common well-being, to the highest states. Each of these experiences includes many feelings: fear, envy, greed, and ambition. At the beginning, they work as negative factors, but then it is necessary to take them from zero, to move them to the positive side.

There is a beautiful, positive form against any negative quality. But it is awakened in a person only accordingly to his love of friends. Thus we can turn malicious envy, poisonous hatred, into something constructive, for useful advancement, etc. One property exists against the other: nothing disappears. If a person is advancing correctly, then all the basics are constantly growing, continuing to burn in him more and more.

There is a type of hatred which is called “hatred in service of the Creator.” That is, I care about the success of the Creator’s army, all my friends. I do everything for their support, like a mother who is worried that her children are healthy, strong, steadfast, and loving each other. My heart aches for all of them.

I begin to distinguish between myself and my egoism. For the time being, my egoism still has its power; it helps me to fight for my connection with the group, for its support. This is our work until the end of correction. Our egoism will grow and prosper, helping us to reveal all fine details one against the other.

Otherwise, how can I find out? There must be positive jealousy, negative ego, and altruistic fear. Otherwise, I will lose the flavor. We cannot “just love” or “just envy,” we have no system of measurement if two points do not exist simultaneously.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/13

A New Type Of Ego

Question: You say that in our time a new type of ego is being discovered. Perhaps you can characterize it?

Answer: The new type of ego awakens in us the question: “Why does man exist?” It summons in us the need to discover the second positive force in nature so that it won’t swallow itself like a cancerous tumor that eats the entire surrounding space and therefore dies since it has nothing from which to be nourished.

Question: It follows that it appears from a lack of energy and therefore it needs the energy of the altruistic force.

Answer: Yes. But the idea is that in the past the ego had nourishment from which it grew and realized itself; whereas today, a stage has been reached in which the ego needs to develop together with its opposite power in order to create the next level.

In other words, the previous developmental stages were the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature. However, now it’s necessary to develop a new spiritual component. And when it appears, then with the right connection between egoism and altruism, some kind of means will be created from ourselves that is composed of the two forces. Within this useful tension between plus and minus, between the positive and negative force, we create what will be called “man.” Today we are becoming the mechanical executors of our inner egoistic force.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/13

A Female Ally

Question: Should women inspire the men?

Answer: Women can inspire men better than anyone else. Imagine that your wife is impressed by you and keeps saying: “You are so clever, so handsome, so special! I look at other men and see that you are much stronger and better than them!” If a woman felt that way about you, you would immediately run home and sit by her like a little boy listening to everything that she says. This is what men are like.

Women can manipulate men anyway they like. If a woman is clever, if she aims at thegoal and understands what she does it for, I will only be grateful to her just for starting to work on my nature. I will not brag and be proud of being a “matcho.” On the contrary, I will be totally honest with her: “The ego is my nature, it is a contemptible zero! Help me exit it! Let’s resist it and change it together. Then we will do the same with you.”

This is where we should annul ourselves. Let’s be our own psychologists a little and look at ourselves from the side. This is the only way we can exit this state. We also try to do the same thing in the group, by putting ourselves above it and then below it so that it will impress us.

We have to do the same thing in the family, by constantly ascending and descending one with regards to the other, but what for? In order to attain the upper goal! So I don’t care about the relations with the family as long as they are aimed correctly and are set on the goal. A woman is your major assistant, she knows you better than anyone else, so her right attitude towards you can help you exit your nature quickly.

We should have special courses for teaching married couples about the right mutual relations and how to change people’s egoistic nature. You will see how you will be able to positively influence your kids afterwards. They will be good, kind, disciplined, and wise. We should take advantage of such opportunities. The main thing is to be more mature. The importance of the goal justifies everything.

We know that in the past Kabbalists were actually happy when they had bitter, angry wives. But our wives are not angry or bitter. They are following the spiritual path with us, helping us, and advising us as to how we should work with our ego and use it for the right cause.

We need to understand that we are connected only for this common goal which determines our relationships, and that we do everything to attain it. This means that I don’t want to play with your ego in any way; I don’t want to use it in order to stab you, no! We should behave wisely, gently, and tactfully with regards to one another to the extent that we can use ourselves and our partner correctly.

This is what we should learn. You cannot imagine what a great tool this is for our correction. We can change our planet with it! To be honest, you don’t need anyone but a female ally. You need the group only in order to connect the two of you correctly.

In any case, during the transition period there are quite a few families in which the partners are moving in different directions. In that case a person needs a group. By the way, a group of women is very serious support with regards to the men’s group. Take this seriously. Progressing through the right methods of interaction, you will see how much it helps you.
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From the Moscow Virtual Convention “Unity Without Boundaries,” 12/14/13, Lesson 4

There Is No Tomorrow In Spirituality

The Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parshat, “VaYikhael,” Item 112: Now that the upper King and Queen (Malchut) are in bonding and joy in those kisses, he who needs to ask questions and make requests shall make them because then is a time of good will.

Question: What is a “time of goodwill?”

Answer: A person has to look for chance and for a time of goodwill that is illuminated upon him from Above. This is actually true, the giving of the Torah occurs every moment, and every moment you have good opportunities. The Creator has no time, there is no today or tomorrow. It’s all with regard to a person who attains spirituality and all the changes are for the better or for the worse. It sounds as if the Creator is changing, turning from side to side, to the good side and to the bad side. A person feels all these changes inside him.

So we have to look for the opportune moment and not relegate it to the Upper Providence: “I will wait and perhaps things will change one day. Tomorrow will be better.” What does it mean “tomorrow will be better?” Today, the next moment, you will create a state called “tomorrow!” You cannot do so if your animal doesn’t allow that, if you are seriously ill, God forbid, or if you are very tired, since we don’t exist above the body yet. But if you can, then there is no such thing as a time of goodwill from Above, but only from below; everything depends on your efforts.

Although we do sometimes feel that a “cloud” covers us and that we are in the dark or things are blurry, we should wait and it will pass. It says: “Time does what the mind doesn’t do.” So does that mean that there are good and bad times?

Still it’s all with regard to a person, as Baal HaSulam says: “and he who can wait until tomorrow will attain his mind when his life is over.” There is no tomorrow in spirituality. Don’t wait even a second!
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From the 2^nd Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/13, The Zohar

Write It On Your Heart…

Question: How can we organize the mutual cooperation in the group so I will change it and it will change me in return? Are the articles of Rabash enough for us today or do we need to add something to it?

Answer: You should determine what we have to add to the articles of Rabash. Everyone adds something. It’s as if everyone rewrites the entire Torah. The Torah is not a book but actually a person’s whole attitude towards the Creator, towards everything that comes from Above.

A person has to rewrite the Torah, as it says: “Write it on your heart.” He has to write the Torah back from himself to the Creator, about the upper Providence and everything that was created, about everything that descends upon a person from Above and is arranged for him. A person has to respond internally and return it to the Creator. This is called “writing the book of the Torah.”

So everyone is called “a student who renews the words of the Torah,” since he does it by himself, out of his desire and he writes what no one else can write, none of the parts of that infinite desire. Everyone writes by himself.

Therefore, there is the commandment for everyone to write a book of the Torah. In the past, people actually sat down and wrote it.

You are asking if we have to add anything to the articles of Rabash, yet each time you read an article, you understand it differently, it means that you rewrite it, add something to it and write your own article. Every time! All this is written because you work with your desires. Every time you organize your desires differently, it’s all added to the general desire, to the general correction, until all these forms reach the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun); this is called writing.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/13, The Zohar

What Are We Afraid Of?

Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”: The secrets of the Torah are revealed only to those who fear His Name, who keep His Glory with their hearts and souls…

Question: Is there a connection between our fears and the trepidation in front of the Creator?

Answer: Our personal fears and the trepidation in front of the Creator are connected through the chain of cause and effect.

The Creator sends corporeal afflictions to us in this material life; all of them are in essence fears. We are afraid of not having something, of not being able to provide for our existence; we worry about our children’s future, etc. Later, due to our studies and under the influence of the Light that Reforms, we gradually rise above our earthly fears and approach a transitional step where we replace the fears of this world with spiritual fear.

We advance due to our material fears; it happens when the time comes. It is a result of our development. This is how all of humanity progresses. However, we tend to advance with the help of the second type of fear. How can we obtain it? How can we start fearing that we won’t be able to please the Creator?

Those whose souls are able to achieve the second kind of fear come to the group and begin advancing. They need to change their individual fears and start worrying whether they are able to help the group, their friends, and through them, the Creator. “I don’t know Him now, but if I get along with my friends, I will definitely get along with Him too.” If people are ready, they are concerned about their group, the general public, anddissemination. They are afraid of whether they are able to aspire to go outside of their borders, beyond their personal interests. If we implement the possibility that is given to us in this world, if we manage to form the format that will eventually let us enter the spiritual realm, it means that we are advancing
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

It Is Time To Build An Incubator

Question: What should I do if I am not built for this work? I have engaged in this work for so long and I have the desire to escape from it all the time.

Answer: You’re still not doing anything. You think that you engage in internal work and that you are advancing, but the advancement is assessed in regard to one’s connection to the group. Now let’s see if you are under the influence of this environment, that you have determined this, and they don’t just impress you automatically.

When you come to the group, it naturally influences you whether you want it or not. You are like a small child who hasn’t learned anything yet. You were just born, and you are taken care of like a baby: diapers, milk, etc. You grow and advance completely unaware that you are totally in the arms of the upper.

But later you are required to participate and connect to your environment: at least to smile at your mother, to reach out to her, to learn something. This means that you must interact with the environment. Do you participate with the environment in anyway, at least like a baby? Do you smile at it? Do you wave your arms and legs with joy like to your mother, when the group approaches?

Our society has to be like a caring mother, or like an incubator in which a person can mature very quickly on the path of “I shall hasten it” and reach the end of correction. There is no other way.

Question: But what can keep me in the group? What if they throw me out?

Answer: We don’t throw anyone out of the group. Even if your egg has not cracked but just lays in the corner of the incubator its whole life. Only if it stinks and begins to spoil and poison our society will we have to throw you out. But as long as you are passive, it isn’t that bad. Even if you are considered a burden on society, we are ready to carry you on our back. Only a person who intends harm has no place among us; everyone else does.

People leave because they don’t listen to what they are told: that spiritual fulfillment is possible only though connection. This connection has to be in the form of an incubator that warms us. Rather than the Creator, the group has to be the good and benevolent for a person. A person cannot advance without an environment, without a group. There is no other way, you either do so or you don’t.

Also there is a good chance for success as there are new opportunities now that no other generation before us had, not since the beginning of humanity in this world. Today we can begin with massive, open dissemination, unlike Baal HaSulam who started to bring people closer very carefully, one by one, mainly from the Orthodox environment, although there were several secular people among his students.

Today we can open the wisdom for all. This means that it is time to build an incubator for the small circle, for the wider circle, and for the whole world. It is our duty to build it. We are the ones who have received the awakening for the Creator, and so we have to build the incubator for all of humanity. This means that we should be the transition, a kingdom of priests.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, The Book of Zohar

Our Leader: It’s The Ego

Question: What role does the ego play in the transition to a new formation, considering that it has finally evolved?

Answer: It will help us in that it shows us where and how to add the opposite force of good so that they will develop in a mutually balanced manner.

The ego is our leader in that it shows what must be done. The egoistic desires in every case will determine the activities of the person, we don’t remove anything here in any way, and we don’t discard what we created. We only add a positive component to everything that is now gradually dying and animate.

Question: You said that the altruistic force is a creative force. Can the ego also create?

Answer: It can create in a wonderful way. See what it did with us? All this is for the good. There is nothing wrong in nature.

This is the program of nature that we carry out unconsciously under the influence of its forces. Every time that we feel it is bad for us in a given state, we begin to move towards the next state, towards a better state. The ego subconsciously shows us that it will be good for us here, and there, no. It directs us from within, telling us what to do.

The ego manages all of our strength, all the characteristics, and leads us forward precisely and sharply. Sometimes we fall into something, suppose in the building socialism or something else, but this is only to understand the ramifications of the blind alley, and after that we continue to develop further.
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From KabTV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/2013

Two Partners: Egoism and Altruism

Question: In the past, at the time of the transition from one system to another, did the ego also require altruism or not?

Answer: Egoism nourishes itself by always conquering something. It is like a cancerous tumor that gradually grows while not yet being apparent. And now it is grown to the last stage and is beginning to devour itself.

Until the ‘80s, all of the systems that we constructed served to extend and expand a particular goal. We flew into space, to the stars; we went deep into the bowels of the earth; we built great cities, and we created new technologies. We developed under the influence of one and only one force, and we thought that this would continue forever.

If we were to continue to develop further in this way, we would advance ourselves only externally and not internally. Human development was done in a mechanical, technological manner: Instead of two hands, I would have had twenty; instead of seeing for a distance of two kilometers, I would have seen two hundred thousand kilometers ahead.

In this case, the human became an appendage of a machine, an appendage of a computer. So today the egoistic system begins to work more and more against him. The human has become unnecessary to it.

We have grown to such a state where we must discover the meaning of our existence. Now, for many people, in particular among the youth, the reason for living, the aspiration for some kind of goal, has disappeared. “What is there to strive for? I exist comfortably, I don’t need children, a family, or serious work; what will this give me? It is better if I sit somewhere with friends, have fun. What else is there to live for; what is the reason for living? I will play a little and die, like everyone”.

Therefore the question now is, either to give a person a motivation for living, or drugs. And here Kabbalah or the method of integral education show people a completely different way: to get from nature a second anti-egoistic power. It is precisely this power that created and developed the ego so that we would consciously get it from nature and could mutually manage the two forces of our development.

One of them can inspire us forward with good, through the goal that shines from afar. And the second is like a developmental steamroller that chases me, and I flee from it like that poor coyote in the cartoons.

Question: But even the altruistic force requires egoism, at least in this stage?

Answer: Yes, for this, the ego develops. And now it shows that if we don’t balance it through the altruistic force, it will devour us, like a cancerous tumor in the human body that devours the body and in the end kills itself.

What does a cancerous tumor mean? This is a disrupted program of the development of the body, of the functioning of its cells, where they begin to proliferate beyond their contained space and have an opposite effect.

In principle, every cell has the possibility of cancerous development, but they are always found in harmony between them, in a relative balance between positive and negative forces. But when one of them becomes greater, then another either disappears or there is a disruption in the polarity between them, and in this imbalance destructive development appears.

It is the same thing in society as well. We should begin quickly, through a second positive force, to balance the entire human society that has become a cancerous tumor. And this is the remedy for its recovery.

Unfortunately, at the time of healing cancer, we are satisfied with suppressing the egoistic development of the cells through various kinds of short radiation, thereby killing them. This is not a cure. It is not necessary to kill human society or to do anything else with it. You just need to add the second developmental force to it.
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From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/2013

The Process Of Societal Decay

Question: The present state of humanity is a typical picture of the degradation of all of humanity. If we take the Roman Empire as an example, there the system deteriorated and broke apart so much that every part worked only for itself and for the whole, and therefore, the commands of the authorities lacked power. The terrible process of societal decay began. And now we are speaking about a much larger scale that humanity has never experienced.

Answer: And even now this is happening without sword and spear, just as it was then! If we see humanity as some kind of unified system, various societies developed at different rates, but in general, it was a collective system within which individual units were damaged. But the system was always restored, whereas today the state is such that no healthy societies are left because the crisis touches all of humanity in general and damages the entire system.

The Kabbalists predicted these phenomena on a completely scientific basis. If we take our ego as the basic force of nature from which all social and even natural laws are derived, then in the end, the ego must grow to a state like this where it subjugates everything that exists, meaning that it will destroy all the connections between people.

And while in the beginning it acts to create these connections, yet after it arranges them, it reaches personal satisfaction. This happened in the mid ‘50s of the previous century, when everyone thought that humanity was entering a state of the infinite development of the consumer society in which everything was for the good of the person: schools, universities, culture, science, the conquest of space.

Various societies encountered this in different ways, yet they specifically wanted to attain this goal. Egoism attracted us towards this type of development. And as a result of this, when we systematically connected and organized reciprocal worldwide global connections, we immediately began to die, like the Roman Empire.

To date, we certainly see that we don’t have the ability to use these connections correctly. They all act not only against the person himself but also against the entire society, and destroys them. In this connection it’s possible to see the nature of the cancerous growth in the body clearly as it kills everything that nourishes it and in the end itself dies.
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From KabTV’s “An Integral World” 10/24/2013

A Magnifying Glass For The Upper Light

Question: What does it mean to try to connect while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: Reading The Zohar is the time when you shouldn’t use your mind but your soul. Now you have to think about how we should connect in order to be like a magnifying glass by which we draw the sun rays in order to light something that is under the glass.

How can we concentrate and focus on this point? If we do, we will feel the Light that influences us going through us, illuminating our desire to receive and changing it. Then the desire will restrict itself, acquire a Masach (screen) and will begin to work.

Our whole work is done by this magnifying glass that is becoming more powerful. Our work is in the growing concentration of the group in quantity and quality so that a stronger Light will come and bring us to a more substantial and more qualitative connection. Then we will discover the spiritual state in the connection between us. What we discover is called the spiritual world.

Question: Do I build this magnifying glass by my efforts or is it created by everyone’sefforts?

Answer: By all our efforts. The magnifying glass itself isn’t important. What’s important is the central point in the magnifying glass, in which all the rays of Light connect and descend through it.

Question: How do we know that all our efforts are successful?

Answer: According to the result: You you will receive the desired change, as it says: “I labored and I found.” The exertion is in the connection between us, in one heart and inmutual guarantee, and the finding is when we discover between us the first attribute of bestowal called the first spiritual level.

Question: What will change in me after this change?

Answer: You will not only want to bestow but will also be able to bestow.
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From the 2nd part of the the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/08/13, The Book of Zohar

Now It’s Your Turn To Be King And To Rule

All changes occur in the desire to receive while the Upper Lightis in a state of absolute rest. At the same time, we know that everything comes from Above and that there is none else besides Him, the Creator, and that He alone decides and acts. So how can it be that one time we say that everything is determined by the Light and another time that everything depends on the vessel, on our efforts, on the desire, on our exertion, and our work?

We can see it in two ways: from the perspective of the Light or from the perspective of the desire. But it’s clear that all the attributes and the software that are part of the Light operate in a concealed manner on the desire and activate it. This is called the “force of the operator on the operated.”

We can assess the Light that operates the desire according to its actions in the desire. This means that all our revelations start from the vessel, from the desire. I don’t reveal the Creator who operates on me, but rather, within my vessels, I discover the phenomena by which I guess that He operates inside me.

The Light is always there and I only discover its influence. Then it seems that my desires are full and that they begin to illuminate like sparkling Lights, but they only reveal the Light that is already in them. So it’s better to look at the vessels from the side, since it helps us focus on the work correctly and not wait for something to come from Above from the Light.

The Upper Light doesn’t stop its illumination on the lower even for a moment. This means that its influence doesn’t change because it’s good and benevolent for all. The force doesn’t change, but only the vessels do under the influence of this force. I must say so since it obliges me to take care of my vessels, to think about the connection with thefriends, and to absorb additional spiritual deficiencies from them.

Thanks to the additional deficiency that I receive from the connection, by the greaterimportance of the goal, I demand the Light! I don’t ask it to illuminate on me more, but rather to open up my desire, and then the Light can influence me more.

My desire opens up and the Light remains the same. This is a significant difference in approach. Do we just pray and ask for mercy or do we know that everything depends on our work? Our desire is a result of our work and of the connection between us. This is how we seem to operate the Light, but, in fact, we only open the channels in our desire to receive in which the Light can be revealed.

If I speak from the perspective of the vessels, I oblige myself to constantly worry about them. I don’t wait for the Light to change, and I don’t shed a tear when it doesn’t operate on me and doesn’t fill me, and I don’t blame it for what it did to me and to the whole world in the past. This means that I don’t see the Light as responsible for everything as people commonly do when they make a mistake. After all, nothing depends on the Light because “He has given a law that cannot be broken.” He has given a person everything, like a scepter, so that he will be king and rule. So everything depends only on me and there is no one else I can count on.

Therefore, we must go out to disseminate and support the group and not be materialists and mystics who count on some hidden upper force. This is the great difference between the different religions and Kabbalah, that is, between beliefs and science. In Kabbalah all the tools are in our hands since we know that our desire determines everything and that the Creator doesn’t decide anything; He actually gives us full control.

So why do Kabbalists say that everything depends on the Creator? If we discover that everything is up to us, we will discover that everything is indeed up to Him, according to the work that we do. Therefore, it says, “I have exerted and I have found, believe!” But this is actually something the world isn’t ready to accept. Only by our efforts can we reach anything, and otherwise we can keep on praying forever. At the same time we say, “if only one could pray all day.” This means that we should reach a deficiency in our prayer that will be constantly renewed thanks to our work on the connection between us. So the prayer is the work of the heart, above our desire. This is a critical point and it is the foundation of all the spiritual work. This is the bone of contention that distinguishes the wisdom of Kabbalah from all the other beliefs.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot