The Whole World Is On A Small Raft

The entire creation is divided into the four levels of development: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. And human development also follows the same four stages.

On the still level, a person does not hesitate to agree with everything the upper governance does with him. On the vegetative level, he acquires his own desire, agreement and disagreement.

To rise to the animate level means to have one’s own character and destiny, direction and individuality, that is, to perform a special purpose in creation, posses an active force within a general, large machine of nature, and turn its gears correctly, according to the actions of the Creator, but with one’s own hand.

When a person himself becomes like this enormous machine, he is called a human, Adam. That is, he encompasses all this mechanism of nature and manages it instead of the Creator; he becomes included in the general program of creation. This means to rise to the human level.

Nowadays, humanity begins to awaken to rise above the still to the vegetative level. That is why we feel discomfort and the loss of direction; we do not know where to go and why. And in the coming years, many such events will be manifested, which will puzzle people and deprive them of understanding how to go on.

This will involve the simplest, seemingly clear things and not high principles. Suddenly, the basis of life will disappear: The economy will stop functioning; relationships between people will disintegrate; confusion will overwhelm the power structures. It’s as if a fog falls and everything becomes unclear.

Everyone who came to Kabbalah began to study because at some point, he felt that he had entered such a fog. In other worlds, a person no longer feels that he is the master of his life with everything following a clear order. Here, an obscure factor appears that confuses him.

The protective function of the body starts operating, which wants to feel confident and secure, to stand firmly on the ground, to hold control in its hands, and to know that one has a job, money, health, and pension. But suddenly you see that all this as if disappears in a fog.

The entire humanity will feel this condition. And when, instead of being someone’s personal state, it will start to happen on a great scale, it will be frightening. But this will push us to the next level, will force us to seek protection, a new foundation, and will bring us to the vegetative level.

On the vegetative level, people will be compelled to look for how to hold onto each other, that is, how to achieve global and integral connection voluntarily, consciously, and with the understanding that they cannot survive without this.

It’s as if we are all standing on a raft floating on the water. Imagine that everyone makes uncoordinated movements that rock the raft in opposite directions. In order not to topple the raft, we must hold onto each other and maintain balance all the time; otherwise, we will drown! This feeling will reign in the world.
[52683]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/2011, Shamati #115

All The Difference Is In Intention

Question: Two forces act in the world: the force of bestowal and the force of the desire to receive, created as existence from absence. What is my “I,” my intention? Where does it come from?

Answer: We do not feel the Creator because we are in one desire: the desire to enjoy. Even if I want to give, it is just for fun. In reality, I am confused in intention and action. My action can be either reception or bestowal. And it can be accompanied by the intention to receive for myself or the intention to give to the other. There is nothing else, and this is our whole life.

In our world, there is an action to receive and an action to give to the other, as well as the intention to receive for oneself. But the intention to give to the other is not there; this is what I am not capable of. I can give something to somebody or receive something from somebody, but my intention is directed exclusively at receiving for myself, whereas the intention to bestow to the other belongs to the spiritual world, but I cannot reach it. It is not my fault: I am created like that.

There is no confusion here at all: My entire routine is aimed at self-enjoyment.

What I need is an intention, and it is the most important thing for me (!), regardless of what action I perform: giving or receiving. I perform bestowal to my child, to those whom I love, to friends, and even to my employer because I receive a reward in a natural way or in money, in the form of respect, power, and so on.

The key here is the intention, according to which I operate. How can I achieve the intention for the sake of bestowal to fellow human beings? And what will it give me?

This is where the problem occurs. If all of reality exists outside of me, then what I currently receive inside is only its tiny part called “this world.” It is terribly small, tight, limited in time, space, and everything else, but by crossing to the other side, I will get rid of any limitations.

This is the difference between the intentions. If my intention is aimed at myself, I will not be able to feel anything greater than I perceive today. If my intention is directed at unity with the other, to be in him, then I save myself from this horrible life with its fatal end and ascend to the next degree of life; I live outside the body. The only difference is in intention.
[52692]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/2011, “One Commandment”

Nature Does Not Tolerate Imbalance

We are moving toward balance with nature. It aspires to bring all of its parts to balance. The difference between temperatures gets balanced out, the wind balances out the difference in air pressure, an object that is thrown falls down, toward the place where it will find balance with the force of gravity. The process is aimed at a balanced state everywhere and in every regard. In any area, be it chemistry, physics, biology, and so on, everything is built upon this principle. Everything aspires to equilibrium, to a relief of pressure. Everything submits to the law of entropy. Nature wishes to become appeased. It does not tolerate differences and fluctuations in any parameters.

Eventually, everything has to reach balance. And now the law of nature is demanding balance in human society. We see outbursts and disorder, and this is nature’s way of demanding balance. The still, vegetative, and animate levels have already had their turn, and now it’s the human level’s turn. The desire for balance is emerging within us, but becoming balanced among us means becoming “as one man with one heart.” We might all be different, but there is one criterion: We are all obligated to mutually support one another.

And there is nothing to be done about that: Whether we want it or not, nature will win because it is a tremendous force.

A question arises: Why won’t we disappear, like the mammoths and dinosaurs? Why don’t we just leave the stage like a part that doesn’t fit? After all, our discord with nature is much greater than that of the extinct dinosaurs. However, unlike them, we have a mission, a predestination, a goal: We have to correct ourselves and transform our initial nature. They were unable to do that and they disappeared with the natural course of evolution, whereas we are obligated to bring ourselves into balance with the current phase of development.

That is why we are brought to states where our lack of harmony with nature will become expressed in the gravest forms, but it won’t get to total extinction. 90% of the world might disappear, but some people will remain nevertheless in order to change human nature and reach the necessary balance.

This is the goal and we have no other way to go.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/11, “The Nation”

Why Do I Envy The Creator?

Question: How is it possible to envy the Creator?

Answer: I envy the Creator for being the one who bestows. After all, I learn these qualities from Him, and how else can I learn?

The problem is that for us envy is directly connected to egoism. And if I envy someone, it is like I don’t want him to have something good. This is bad envy.

Good envy is when I wish to become like the one I envy. The problem with our perception is that we don’t see the difference between the qualities themselves, which are not good or bad on their own, and their implementation, which determines everything. We assign our egoistic desire to these qualities from the start because we have gotten used to working in such a way that all qualities, all “9 first Sefirot” clothe onto the egoistic desire, the corrupted Malchut.

However, if we imagine these qualities as clothed onto corrected Malchut, then envy, lust, and honor will seem beneficial qualities that help us come out of this world and rise higher. Everything depends on whether we use them to reach bestowal.
[52422]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/2011, Shamati #9

Preparation Is The Most Important Time

Only the Light can reveal the truth to you; you cannot do anything on your own. The advice that Kabbalists give you is: Try to achieve love for your neighbor. As a reward for your effort, you will feel that you hate everyone!

And an even greater reward given is realizing your own evil. Following that, yet another, higher reward will come: You will understand that you are able to act in order for the Upper Light to correct you. We need to go through all such stages and it is impossible to do this alone. This is why we are brought into a Kabbalistic group. After all, we are able to feel all of these things only in the connection with others, by practicing mutual bestowal.

This initial stage of realizing one’s evil is the most important and difficult stage. Everything else, after the realization of evil, is carried out very quickly and relatively simply.

Therefore, the greatest challenge is to overcome the first degree. It is written that “a thousand begin to study and only one comes out toward the Light.” Everyone stumbles on this first degree; they fall, leave, run away, and are thrown off the spiritual path.The most difficult time is the time of preparation because this specific degree of preparation readies us for the rest of the path.

Right now, while we are in this world we are unaware that we are preparing ourselves for the degrees that will come later on, after a thousand different actions. And later when a person has attained high spiritual degrees, he receives freedom of will specifically by virtue of going through the preparation. It provides the foundation for all the other actions and gives us the ability to make those actions freely.

It is impossible for us to have freedom otherwise, while being on the degree of reception for the sake of bestowal.

It is only when we reveal the “transgressions” of the past – from the period of preparation – that we gain the opportunity to feel separate from the Creator, and therefore, free. This is an exceptionally high state where you are situated completely within Him, but in spite of this, you have the opportunity to say, “I can still be independent!” This is why our preparation today is so important.

To Precede Desire With Intention

Question: How is it that even in the spiritual world intention and desire don’t merge into a single whole, but remain two separate things?

My Answer: We must always be concerned with the intention. The desire will be revealed in compliance with the intention, but no more. The desire is revealed in accordance with the screen and the Reflected Light.

Indeed, my desire is very big – it is Malchut of the world of Infinity. But my screens can be different: from the smallest to the largest. The size of the screen is split into 125 “portions,” and if I reveal the desire along with them, then I am always in balance in that I have one intention.

Every one of us contains Malchut of Infinity, unbounded with all its Reshimot. Only a restriction is placed on it, and now it gradually reveals itself to us, but only in accordance with the size of the screen, or the intention.

Our behavior must be similar: Our whole work is done in the intentions, which determine the revelation of our desires. If the desires are revealed before the intentions, then we suffer. And conversely, if we care to develop the intentions first, then we walk the good path. In other words, if I cultivate the intention, then I walk the path of the Torah. But if the desire is revealed before the intention, then I develop by the path of suffering.

Our destiny lies between these two opportunities.

An Honorable Request For Help

Question: If there was a restriction on reception, why don’t we feel shame raising requests and prayers (MAN) above?

My Answer: We don’t feel shame because we ask for help for us to achieve bestowal, and not for our own sake. That’s nothing to be ashamed of!

You can counter, “but the entire correction occurs because of the shame felt by Malchutof the world of Infinity!” However, I don’t feel shame raising this request because I don’t demand for myself; rather, for myself I ask only the bare necessities, so that I could bestow the rest!

There is no shame in this. Just the opposite, there is honor here for me, because I will be able to bestow to others what no one else can give them! Everybody has such unique abilities in that the work performed by a particular individual cannot be performed by anyone else. That is because everyone has their own personal root in the common soul.

Therefore, it is allowed to ask for strength to live and be healthy, to receive knowledge and abilities—if these things are needed to carry out actions of bestowal. This is precisely what “life” is in the world of truth.

Such is my existence: My life is possible only to the extent that I can bestow. My actions are exclusively bestowal. And the spirit that flows through me sustains my existence, which is intended for bestowal. This is what is called a spiritual state.
[52522]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/11, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Evolution Of Consciousness

We begin to develop and grow from this world, from the lowest possible reality, which descended from the world of Infinity through 125 degrees, through 5 worlds, to the very lowest point.Having reached this low level, the spark of light broke through to the very last spiritual degree into this world and began to form matter in it.

Matter began to concentrate, form, and unite one particle with another. In this manner began the return to the source—the correction of the breaking. From thereon began our Universe: the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature.

All these degrees are a result of the unification of matter into more and more complex structures, all the parts of which act in benefit to each other. The power of Light, the power of nature, unite separate elements, and thus form inanimate matter in all its inner diversity. Matter is formed due to the unification of opposite particles according to particular laws.

And then even vegetative matter arises, where opposite particles connect into even more complex structures. They are much more spread apart from each other, but they unite nonetheless. Then animate nature emerges, each part of which feels separate and wishes to maintain its existence in an egoistic form. However, due to the force of nature, each of them still unites with others, and all together they create the animate—an animate body that is able to exist in spite of the fact that inside it exist a contradiction and unification of polar elements.

They are united by a special force—the force of Light, the force of the Creator, the force of mutual bestowal, in spite of the force of creation, an egoistic force that exists inside each. These two forces begin to act in common harmony.

Harmony is impossible if there are not two opposite forces that nonetheless unite for the sake of one goal, a common interest, and some higher state. A higher state means common interests of the body: the vegetative or the animate body. And then, due to development of matter on the animate level, it reaches the level of the human being of this world, which is an even more complex creature—a more aggressive and egoistic one. Every creature from this degree “human being in this world” finds that he is opposite to all other people.

And when he reaches the end of his egoistic development, he reveals that if he wishes to exist further, he needs a second, opposite force—the force of bestowal. The force of egoism developed in him, but what is he to do it with it now? It only destroys us.

At this point we understand that we must receive the force of bestowal, the force of unification. The feeling of the lack of the force of unification, without which we cannot continue, is in fact that feeling of a crisis, the breaking, the destruction of former values. It is revealed directly inside our existence, our life. We discover in absolutely all areas of life, in all the activities of a person in this world, that we cannot reach balance, harmony, and so-called “life.”

After all, life is built on the basis of two forces: reception and bestowal. We cannot exist by acting only with the one force of egoism. Therefore, as a result of our development, our gradual evolution, step by step nature brings us to the conclusion that we also need a second force: the force of unification.
[52548]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/11, Shamati